Go and Make the Name of Yeshua Known

0:00 Well, there continue to be hostages who are being held and the, and the region and the Middle East continues, uh, to become more and more engaged in this conflict. Uh, I, I debated multiple things, uh, as to what to share with you this week, uh, because this week actually more has happened this week that I would love to share about that. I ha I have to pick one.

0:47 Um, I guess I'm not really gonna pick one. I'll just share a couple things. By the way, it's not just Israel that has been hurt by Hezbollah. Hezbollah 40, about 40 years ago, killed, what was it, 117 US citizens in, in a, in an attack against the US Embassy in Beirut. It, it was some number, some, some large number, and have been on America's terrorist watch list ever since. I, I will say, in war, everyone suffers. No one wins. Um, that being said, I have been relatively astonished by

1:36 how, um, little non-combatant suffering has been a side effect of Israel's strikes. Uh, certainly over the last week. Um, I don't know if you heard this, but yesterday, Israel took out the leader of all Hezbollah, um, in a, in a targeted, uh, bunker strike While BB Netanyahu was addressing the un. Uh, it just, um, it, it's amazing to me. And, and for those, for those who, who have still continued to, to miss this, there are ballistic missiles, okay?

2:25 I should never downplay a rocket because rockets can kill people all the time. But I don't know if you have considered how large a ballistic missile is, and that there have been numerous that have been shot at Israel so far. I just wanna show you a picture of one that, that my dad literally just gave to me. Um, it was shot outta the sky in southern Jerusalem yesterday. Is that this morning? Today? Do you guys mind popping that, uh, up there? This is what was remaining of the ballistic missile that Israel shot outta the sky today on, on this, on just on the south side of Jerusalem Iv. But Tel Aviv has also been attacked.

3:12 Haifa has been attacked. All of the major centers, population centers of Israel have been attacked. Uh, the, the warnings that, uh, in fact, I, I was in conversation with a friend of mine yesterday. He was sending me, um, the red alert, Uh, You know, alerts and, and where many of us have friends up in the Galilee area. Um, that whole area was, was hit with a barrage of rockets yesterday or in, in the last 36 hours. I don't wanna spend too much more time because, because it is what it is. And, uh, the reality at this point, there's nothing that you and I can do to change it. Uh, what we can do is we can pray.

3:58 Um, You might not like the way I pray. This is, this is how I pray. The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Whom should I dread? When evil doers approach me to devour my flesh, my adversaries, and my foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army camp surrounds me,

4:46 my heart will not fear the war breaks out against me. Even then, will I be confident? One thing I ask of the Lord and that I will seek to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to meditate in his temple for in the day of trouble, he will hide me. He will conceal me in the shelter of his tent, and he will set me high upon a rock. Perhaps I should say. He will set me high upon the rock, then will my head be high above my enemies around me in his tabernacle, I'll offer sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing. Yes, I'll sing praises to the Lord. Do not abandon me or forsake me, oh God of salvation.

5:36 Teach me your way and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence. Surely I trust that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for Otai. Be strong. Let your heart take courage and wait for the Lord. You see, I, I don't know if you realize this, but we live in the midst of a spiritual battle. There's a war in the heavenlies that has been waging for millennia. The war is getting more fierce. We're seeing more evidence in, in the fleshly realm.

6:28 It grieves our souls to see people perish. But we also know that the day of the Lord is drawing closer every day, and we place our hope and our trust in him. This is nothing new, Having a war waged against the promises and the covenants of the Lord. In fact, it's a war that was waging in Paul's life. In chapter nine of the Acts, Paul breathed out violence and was out to murder and to oversee the arrest of followers of Yeshua. And Paul was stopped in the middle of the road.

7:18 Perhaps you wonder why I pray for those who persecute Israel today, because it's not a first time Paul was stopped in the middle of the road, blinded and turned his life and faced Yeshua and followed Yeshua until the day he died. It's not a new war. It's a war that continues to rage. It's a war that has been waged against the children of Israel since God chose Abraham and his descendants to be his vehicle of restoration

8:05 and of redemption in this world. And it is a war that continues to rage and got even hotter when Yeshua came and provided the ultimate redemption for each and every one of us because it was revealed, not, not, not anything new, but it was revealed that the scope of redemption was beyond the house of Israel and was to include all of the nations. And so those of you who are here From the nations represent that element that, um, the remnant of the nations that has been, that has been

8:53 grafted in and brought into the commonwealth of Israel for the purpose of seeing God's promises and covenants enacted here on earth as it already exists in heaven. You see, we see all of the, all of the evil that goes on. The reality is, is God's kingdom is already here. It's just not quite fully here yet. It's the matter of getting it from heaven to earth in fullness. And it starts with each one of us, and each one of us go through this battle every day where we have to continually turn

9:39 and place our trust in the Lord each and every day, some of us each and every minute. It's not something that once you do, it's done forever and you can forget about it and life becomes easy. In fact, sometimes it becomes harder, but the more you do it and the more you surround yourself with others who do the same, who make the same decision every day, the more we can can, can grapple and wrestle and help the kingdom of God be here today as it already is in existence in heaven. And it changes daily with each one of us.

10:26 Now, on one hand, it's amazing because I think this is my opinion that really we kind of over, uh, emphasize how much humanity can do. Um, I I don't want to get into too many political things, but we seem to think that we control the earth and the universe and everything that happens to it. And if one, and, and, and particularly if we in America stop doing particular things, it will change the way the earth exists. Maybe, maybe not, I'm not saying don't be good stewards of the earth, but I think perhaps we overin, uh,

11:13 overestimate our influence on, on, on the Earth. Um, on the other hand, where we do have great influence is in our personal lives. Now, I don't know if you've ever, if you've ever really thought about this. We barely, we barely have any influence over anyone else's life. Maybe some of us have just a little bit more influence, but the reality is the only thing we can change is within ourselves. I Don't know if you ever think about this. It's, it's easiest for married couples to think about this because married couples, how often do you wish, man,

11:58 I just wish my spouse would change this one thing. And then you start to say, spouse, I think it might be better if you do this. And spouse looks at you and goes, well, let me tell you the five things that you should change. And you go, no, no, I'm just trying to change one thing, not five. And it becomes now a problem in the house when in reality, the only thing that we can change is ourselves. And really, that's hard enough in and of itself, but the only real thing that we actually have control over, now, I'm, I'm about to step on every single person

12:44 who's a control freak. I'm about to step on all y'all's toes. The only thing in life that you can control, you ready for this? Yeah. There's only one thing that you can control, and that's your response. When someone says something to you or about you or concerning you, that's the only thing you can control. Beyond that, you can control your tongue. Some, for some of us, it's a little easier than others, But we think we can control. We think we can dictate. We think we can determine everything in our life.

13:30 And the reality is, we can't. The thing I love about Acts, the Book of Acts, I am working solely to get back into acts. Don't worry. The thing I love about the Book of Acts is it, if we allow it, it shows us how despite our best efforts, the spirit of God is actually in control of the movement of the good news of Yeshua as it expands outward. And I say, despite our best efforts as people to resist suffering, I don't know.

14:16 I don't know how many of y'all love to go to jail. I mean, it is fantastic, right? To go to jail and be persecuted or to, to be standing up before your brethren and to have someone get up and say, stone, him and I, and I mean, the kind of stoning from back then, not from California, sorry. Anyways, Here we are, we're ending the book of, uh, the, the chapter, uh, mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. Acts chapter nine. We're drawing to an end of this chapter. And I just, I want, I want to remind us of a few things that have happened up until this point.

15:02 First of all, Philip, he was in Samaria. Then he went and met with the Ethiopian, and then if you remember, he began to, to to go up the coast of Israel. And he ends up in Caesarea. Paul is oversees the stoning of Stephen, then goes to persecute all of the followers of Yeshua, has an encounter with Yeshua himself, changes, turns his direction, turns his direction, chooses to follow Yeshua, and from that point goes to Jerusalem. And then there's some havoc going on in Jerusalem, and they say, let's get you out of Jerusalem. And he goes up to where? Caesarea to catch a boat, to Tarsus. Peter.

15:50 Now here we are in, at the end of chapter nine. Peter is traveling from Jerusalem area towards Caesarea. I I would just want you to note, I, I know I I, I've said this multiple times, is my opinion that Luke is, if you will, describe who writes down the book, the, the Book of Acts, and that the Holy Spirit is actually overseeing what he's writing. But in that process, you can't help but note the elements of brilliance of what I would, what I would say is Luke, Luke is bringing, you can see this if you're paying attention, Luke is bringing all of this concentration. Think about this. Philip, Paul and Peter, all literary, all literary characters in the book

16:36 of Luke are coming through Caesarea in, in a, in about a 1, 2, 3, stage age. Philip. Now, I would presume, based upon the writings in, in Luke and how, and how Steven, um, is no longer, is no longer with the community. He's, uh, gone on to be with the Lord. It seems that Philip has taken his, uh, head of the, the Shama machine role and is now ended up here in Caesarea Paul, who we know, because we exist two centuries, two mil, two millennial later, we know Paul ends up going on to be the most influential, uh, person and spreading the good news of Yeshua with all of the nations.

17:25 Paul ends up going through Caesarea. And now Peter, who is the most influential disciple, is about to go through Caesarea. So Luke is bringing some literary action going on in his, in his bringing all roads at this moment to Caesarea. Caesarea happens to be the port, the primary port at this point, for exporting through all to all of the nations. Uh, it's primarily a non-Jewish port. Um, it's very interesting. Perhaps Peter is following up on Philip's ministry like he did in Samaria. I don't know if you remember, Philip went down to Samaria and then, and then, uh, Peter and John come down to confirm the work that's going on.

18:12 It seems like Peter is, is kind of following in the tracks of Philip A. Little bit, and, and going to these communities that are already established and confirming what's going on with them and strengthening those communities. So we come to this week's passage. Acts chapter nine, Starting in verse 32. Peter went here and there, among them all, he came down as well, to the Kosh, to the holy ones, living the saints, living in Lida. And there he found a man named aas who had been bedridden for eight years. And he was paralyzed. Peter said to him, aas, get up, uh, excuse me, aas Messiah, Yeshua heals you, get up and pack your bed.

18:58 Immediately, he got up all who lived in Litta, and the plane of Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. Here we have the healing of a paralytic man. Peter is there going, going in and Aoun and around. He's going here and there among all of the believers of Yeshua in that are, that are there in this area. It seems to me like Peter, as he's probably the head apostle or Emissary is going out now to strengthen the communities to help them build up. Why? Because there's been a scattering of the believers through persecution. And now he's there. If you remember, if you recall in, I think it was in last week's verse, they were scattered. And then, uh, the, it says

19:45 that the community kept multiplying, uh, while they were walking in fear of the Lord, in comfort of the Ruakaka Kodesh verse 31. And here now comes Peter to come and encourage the communities that are now growing up and being built up wherever they've been scattered. So Peter's going here and there, he's, he's visiting with all of them, and he finds Anas, who's this man who is, uh, has been paralyzed by the way, you'll notice Luke often includes, uh, miraculous accounts. Um, if I, if I can put it like this, please don't judge me for what I'm about to say. Miraculous accounts are kind of like the turbo booster on the gospel in your car.

20:33 So like the gospel is, the good news is going out. And then what Luke does is he highlights some miracles so that it, it's, it just gives an extra boost to it while it's going down the road. I I have a vehicle which is currently in the shop, which I can be driving down the road going a, a well-respected 65 miles an hour because that's the speed limit. And, uh, and while going 65 miles an hour down the road, should I need a little bit extra oomph to get around some vehicle that is there next to me. My vehicle has just a little extra boost that comes with the engine, unfortunately, that's why it's in the, in the shop right now.

21:19 But, uh, maybe I, maybe I used the boost a little too much. Uh, anyways, These miracles, what they do is they help bring us back into focus on the good news, and they help project it then further and faster into all of those who are surrounding. So here we have the, and, and also you'll often notice Luke will, um, will include, uh, couplets. So if there's one, there will be two often, and if there's a male, there will be a female or vice versa. So here Peter is, is with this paralytic man in,

22:06 oh, lemme see where I, I gotta catch up in my notes. Where am I? It, yeah. Here, here, Peter comes to down to Litta. Litta is about a day's journey, perhaps a little bit more from Jerusalem is about 25 miles, and it's the primary Jewish, it's primarily, excuse me, it's a primarily Jewish town that's in the plane of Sharon that runs from, uh, north to south in the land of Israel. It's about, uh, four to six hours walk, uh, in this time period from Joppa, Joppa is about halfway from Jerusalem to Caesarea, right? I'm, I'm, I'm doing that so that you understand what's going on. And here he comes across a man who's been

22:52 bedridden for eight years. And Peter says to him, A Messiah, Shea heal. You get up and pack your pack up your bed. And immediately he got up. I want you to notice, Luke tells us, this man has been bedridden for eight years. It illuminates the severity of the paralyzation of this man. It's not, he just fell off the wall and is now paralyzed, or he just had something and he's now paralyzed. He's been paralyzed for eight years. He is now a hundred percent a dependent upon someone else. Someone else has to care for him around the clock. This is what the reader of the hearer understands when they hear this person has been paralyzed

23:38 or bedridden for eight years. It's not a recent injury. And when Peter tells him the Lord, Messiah, Yeshua heals you, get up. Then the response is all who lived in Litta and the plaintiff, Sharon, saw this man, this bedridden man, and then they turned to the Lord. So the news of this miraculous healing spreads quite quickly, about as quickly as the turbo boost on the highway in your vehicle when you're trying to pass a car. Anyways, it, it spreads beyond the town and into the surrounding areas, and the response is that they all turn to the Lord.

24:24 Now, this biblical phrase, turning to the Lord, indicates repentance frequently from idolatry. It, it, it doesn't indicate just repentance, but repentance and then also obedience. In fact, it connects to this week's story portion in this week's story portion. It says this in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verses nine through 10, Adonai, your God will make you prosper in all the work of your hand and in the fruit of your womb, and in the offspring, in the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil for good, for otai will again rejoice over you for good as he rejoice over your fathers. When you listened to the voice of otai, your God, to keep his mitz vote and his statutes that are written in this scroll of the Torah, when you turn to otai your God

25:12 with all of your heart and with all of your soul, you see, this is the biblical principle is turning to the Lord. When you turn, you turn from something to something. I mean, unless you're spinning in circles, which is probably never a good idea. But when you're turning, when, when you turn to the Lord, it's as if you're walking and following whatever, whatever it is that you're walking and following, and then something happens, something strikes in the ground. Or in Paul's case, he, there's this bright light from heaven and it causes him to stop and he realizes what's going on, and he repents and turns to the Lord.

25:57 The turning to the Lord means you're walking in a different direction. It's not just a, you turn to the Lord and you just stand there and say, Hey, Lord, I'm enjoying it right here. No, it's a, it's a walk. It's a, it's a process by which you are following or through which you are following. So here we move on to the next verse in verse 36 of chapter nine, and Japa. So here, I, I want you to notice we've had now a, a, a healing of a paralytic man, and now we're gonna find the coupling, uh, uh, miracle and Japa. There was a disciple named Tabitha, which translates as Dorcas. Me and my sisters called me that all the time when I was a kid. I'm just playing. She was full

26:46 of mitzvot and akah. She was full of good deeds and righteousness or, or, or charitable actions. It means that she's doing what the Lord has commanded, and it says, which she continually did in those days, she became ill and died in what days? In the days when Inas was healed. You see, I just want you to connect what's going on in the passage, Peter is there has, uh, the, the healing of the Lord the Messiah. Yeshua has healed inas through Peter, and it's in those days that, that, uh, Tabitha became ill, and she died. It seems rather sudden, her illness and her death, when they had washed her for burial, they placed her in an upstairs room since Litta was near Joppa.

27:31 The disciples hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, begging him, come, please come to us without delay. So as I mentioned earlier, Japa was a, a Jewish port city that's about 12 miles from Lida. It's about a four to six hour walk. And there's this disciple, and, and she's called a disciple, which means she's already a follower of Yeshua, and she's faithfully following him, and she's full of good deeds and akah and righteousness and charity. It, she's full of these good deeds, and it's coming. It's a, it's an overflow of her faith, of her, of her discipleship with Yeshua. Now, how does Tabitha already know about Yeshua?

28:18 Could trace back to Acts two and three we're not entirely certain. Perhaps Philip stopped by here on his way. Uh, perhaps he stopped in Joppa on his way up to Caesarea, and he shared the good news and about Yeshua, and perhaps that's where her face started. We're not, we're not told Tabitha is an Aramaic name. That means gazelle. And the text tells us that Tabitha means Dorcas. So when your sisters call you Dorcas, just tell 'em, no, it's Tabitha. No, I'm just, I'm just playing. But here, the text tells us that Tabitha means Dorcas. If Dorcas means gazelle or if Tabitha means gazelle, Dorcas also means gazelle

29:06 because there's an equivalence here in the language. In fact, it could be that her Greek name was dork. This is such a funny thing to me. I can't get over it. You know, there we talked about Paul and Saul and, and how there's a difference of names here. This person, this woman's name is Tabitha, also Dorcas. It could mean that Luke is teaching his audience that Tabitha has more meaning than just being a name, or it could also mean that they're both mean gazelle. But regardless, we know that she's full of good deeds and charitable works. And this is one way that Luke is declaring her virtues, her virtues, meaning that her actions

29:52 match her faith, Her faith. She's the disciple of Yeshua, but her actions match that her, her, her proclaimed faith, which means that she's doing what she says she's gonna do. So here in those days, uh, let's see, I'm sorry, in verse 37, in those days, she became ill and died. It's Jewish custom to have to, uh, to have the burial of the, of the body immediately or, or as soon as possible. Let's say it that way. It was considered disrespectful to leave a corpse overnight. You can also think back to Yeshua when Yeshua died and,

30:40 and his followers rushed to get him off and rushed to get him buried because they didn't want to, uh, dishonor the body. And so the body is, is put away here. They've prepared her body for burial and placed her in an upstairs room. It's likely that the upstairs room was her room. In fact, it's probably where she was sick. And then they, once she passed, they, they prepared her body and she was placed there while some went to go get Peter. So to me, it is not too far of a stretch to think that she had some illness overnight and that she passed early in the morning, and immediately they sent someone to go get Peter,

31:27 who's a four to six hour walk away. That person walks four to those two guys, excuse me. It says there's two men, two men. They go and get Peter because they want him to come before the evening Because they don't want, they don't want to keep the body out overnight. And so these two men, they go to get Peter and, and, and they're in treating Peter to come quickly. They're assuming by the way that A, they can find Peter and B, that he's not entangled in something, and so that he can come immediately. So they go, they in treat Peter.

32:13 They're making this, by the way, it's an eight to 12 hour round trip walk. They were getting their, their steps in for the day, but they go and treat Peter. And so here, the text tells us in verse 39. So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him to the upstairs room. All the widows were crying, showing all the tunics and other clothing Dorcas had made while she was with him. But Peter sent them all outside and he got down on his knees and prayed. Then turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, get up. She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up, he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then he called the saints, or the kid, sheem in the widows and presented her alive.

33:03 Peter responds immediately to the request, And then the text tells us that all the widows are there crying. So Peter, Peter now comes back and, and he enters into the room and it says all the widows who were there. And so actually, it, it's interesting because it begins to make me think, and it's not just me. I didn't, this is not original to me, and, but it makes some commentators think that perhaps Tabitha herself was a widow who was caring for other widows, and that they all lived together in a house, and that when she died, now their caregiver is dead. You see, what does James tell us is the meaning of is

33:49 what is true religion, caring for widows and orphans, and in fact, to the point that it would be good deeds, mitzvah and, and akah or righteousness, charitable deeds, that perhaps she's here caring for widows and she's taking good care of them. It also tells us what her occupation is. Her occupation is, she's a, a seamstress. She, she makes clothing. That's her skillset. At least she makes, uh, tunics and other clothing. Uh, and, and they're there showing them all. And it says that while she was showing all of the clothing,

34:34 she was there with the widows. So now you can see how I can come to the conclusion that they're all perhaps living in the same household together. So here, Peter comes into the, into the room, he sends, um, all of the widows, and I'm assuming anyone else who's there with him out of the room. And he gets down on his knees and he prays. I I just wanna point out with Ananias. He, he walks in and he says, Ananias the Messiah, Yeshua heals. You get up. I mean, that's pretty bold, by the way, when you begin to think about it, like how many of us get called into a room with a paralytic and are bold enough to walk in and say, you Messiah, Yeshua heals. You get up. But now here we are.

35:24 She's, she's passed. She's prepared for burial. And Peter gets in, in part, I wonder actually if he's like, oh, this one, I need a little bit more. And I don't mean that in a, in a funny way. It's, Lord, I absolutely need you on this one. Let me get down and pray because I don't know. And so he gets down on his knees and he prays, and then he turns around and he says to Tabitha, what does he say? Tabitha, get up.

36:16 Those are some, I just think about that situation for a minute. That is some extreme faith, by the way, but also it should jog our memories of other stories that are similar. And in fact, if you haven't noticed, there is a going on here in Acts. There is a, a, a extreme, um, comparison maybe is the word I would use to the ministry of Elijah and Elisha, and both of them go into an upper room and are, and are confronted with a dead person. And in both cases, that person is resurrected and walks away.

37:07 Peter said to her, Tabitha, get up. She opens her eyes and she sees Peter and she sits up. So she is responding in faith to what Peter has said in faith. Huh? She's Dead. No, I know, but she's dead. But also she's responding in faith like she's awake. And then she wakes, she opens her eyes, and then in that process, she sits up. But she can't go any past that. So Peter says, get, well, he doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't say he says it, but the text says, Peter reached out, his hand grabbed her. Should also recall when we were talking about the, um, the lame man who's sitting at the eastern gate in, uh,

37:55 earlier in Acts, acts three, I think, and Peter says, the Lord heal you. And Peter reaches down and grabs the man by the hand and lifts him up. By the way, that is very, that's faith. And I don't mean faith that he'll be healed, but also faith that he'll be healed. And I'm going to make sure that I help. And in that helping process, if he's not healed, I'm just gonna drop him because now I've got all of his weight in my hand. Peter reaches over, grabs her hand and lifts her up. And after standing, he calls in all of the others to present her to them, to them alive.

38:40 And so it became known in verse 42 throughout Joppa, and many came to believe in the Lord. So it happened that Peter stayed on in Joppa for several days with Simon a tanner. Again, miracles of this nature will not remain hidden. They will become known. So that, or for the purpose of the glory of the Lord, it's never, by the way about Peter, it's never you'll read through Book of Acts. It's never, never about Peter. It's never about Paul. It's never about James. It's never about any of them. But it's about the glory of the Lord being illuminated and, and, and everyone exalting and glorifying the Lord and turning to him.

39:30 This miracle becomes known through all Joppa. And the knowledge and understanding of this miracle caused many to believe in the Lord. And then the text tells us that Peter stayed on for several days. Well, for sure Peter's there. Just raise someone from the dead. Why wouldn't the community want him to stay on for a few more days? What else do we have? You know, it's kinda like, kind of, kind of loose interpretation here. It's kinda like when there's a list of to do things at the house or in the community, there's a list of to do things. And all of a sudden the dead was raised great, we got all of this stuff, we got all of these other needs.

40:19 Can you stay a few days? Of course, Peter stayed a few days. He is one of the original followers of Yeshua. He's likely the lead emissary of this time period. And why wouldn't the community even if, even if they don't have a list of things that they need, why wouldn't they want to have him there? He lived, he ate, he swam with Yeshua. I mean, the swimming, he was swimming in, Yeshua was on the water. But anyways, he was with Yeshua for three years-ish, 24 hours a day, he was with him.

41:07 I, I just, I, I often am reminded, so we took a trip to Israel, what was that, six months ago now? Something like that. And we were with each other 24 hours a day. And one of the things I learned from Elder Dave was that when you take a short trip and you're with someone 24 hours a day, all of a sudden, you know that person better than perhaps someone you have done life with for 10 years, because you're only with that person an hour a week. But this person you've been with 24 hours a day for two weeks or three weeks or a month or however long it is, Peter was with Yeshua 24 hours a day for over three years.

41:55 Think of the stories that he could tell, and the, and of course he's gonna stay on it. Of course, they're gonna be like, tell us more. Give us, give us the real, the real deeds. Give us, you gotta tell us what, what's going on with you. Did it, did the, did the fish really have coins in his mouth? Like, did that really happen? Just think about all of the stories that we know from the text, and, and we know that this isn't even all of them. In fact, this is barely a sampling of what Yeshua did. And here they have the ability to have someone who lived with him, and they can ask him questions. So Peter, there stays, he stays, uh, with a, with a man named Simon, who's called the Tanner.

42:41 Simon, by the way, is the most popular Jewish male name in the first century. Three. So often they had other names or traits that would distinguish them from another Simon. So this one's called Simon the Tanner. I want you to remember who's staying with him. Simon Peter, Simon the Rock. Interestingly enough, we got two Simons staying here together in the same, in the same housing place, but he's a tanner. It's interesting. I'm, I'm just gonna hit on this for just a minute and then we'll wrap up and be done. I hope Simon's a tanner tanning is not necessarily of desirable trade. The tanner was often unclean

43:28 because of his proximity to unclean carcasses. And if that wasn't enough, there was also a smell that's associated with tanning or carcasses that are being tanned. So you can imagine if you're around the smell that you often are carrying the smell. Now, not in the, in the same case of smell, but when you think about a mechanic, anytime I visit my mechanic, my mechanic's hands, they are all sorts of like, dark with oil and grease and all sorts of stuff i's gonna say, if your mechanic's hands don't look like that, maybe find another mechanic.

44:15 Or unless he's just the rep, the front desk, the guy. That's the different thing. But that's something that you want from your mechanic. 'cause you know he is doing a good job. Well, hopefully he is doing a good job. Anyways, Simon, the tanner, perhaps there's a smell that's associated with the tanning tanners were often forced to live and or run their business, at least 50 qubits outside of the city. Because of the smell in Jerusalem, they were only allowed to be placed to the east because the prevailing wind was from the Northwest, and it would take the smell away from Jerusalem out of the city. Tanners were exempt from making pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage festivals. Why? Because they're unclean.

45:04 It's likely that Simon is already a part of the community of Yeshua followers. He's opening up his house as a level of hospitality. I would presume that he's, he is a follower of Yeshua and that he's there and meeting with Peter in this same circumstance, these miracles that happen, the raising of Tabitha and the healing of aas are employed to help the audience bridge the events that are there in the God, the, that are there, the miracles to what is coming next.

45:51 And I know this is like, this is like the, ultimately how many of you guys watch TV shows and the, you know, they get to the Midseason finale and you're like, I want just gimme like the next two minutes because I wanna know what's like that next one. Well, I'm not gonna give you that because this is the mid-season finale, and we'll come back to Acts 10 after the, after kote. But these two miracles bridge the reader, the audience of, of the book, of Acts to go from this point, for the purpose of introducing Acts 10. It starts with two miracles, and then Acts 10 happens.

46:37 It starts with this, uh, unclean man who has a tannery and isn't, isn't, uh, obligated to make pilgrimage up to Jerusalem because he's unclean to Acts 10. There's a bridge that's going on in the text. Peter comes into the same room with a dead body. It makes him unclean. Peter lives in a house with a tanner, which makes him unclean because of the carcasses that are there. There's a, a mental paradigm shift that the text is about to force upon us once we get into Acts 10,

47:24 to go from what is clean or unclean to what is clean, excuse me, to go from what is unclean to what is clean, and that there is a mental paradigm that has to break in the process. So we're gonna discuss this next time, him next time on the Book of Acts, acts chapter 10. But meanwhile, we're taking a break. So what, what are, what are a couple things that we can take away from this text? First of all, it's never too late to repent and to turn to the Lord. God will use miracles to cause us to turn to him.

48:14 The Lord will allow circumstances to point out to us something that is hidden within us. He will challenge any prejudices that we might have within us and point us to the fact that we are created in the image of God. This is my, my preview for Acts 10, Because God will challenge everything that we believe, let us allow the Lord to utilize us in whatever manner he might choose, and let us not place limitations on the Lord and what he can do through each and every one of us and our lives. You know, when we say I can't do that, or that, I just, I can't do that.

49:00 What we've just done is we've stuck a, a limitation on the Lord and how he can be used in, in, in our own life. Now, I'm not saying that the Lord has called me to challenge LeBron James in a one-on-one game of hoops. I know that's not my skillset, but there are certain things where we, and even I, I, let me speak for myself. There are certain places where I have limited the Lord because I say, Lord, I can't do that. I'm not, I don't, I'm not good enough for that. Moses did that by the way. Moses said, Lord, I can't really speak. Well, if you want me to go and command a bunch of people, how am I gonna do that if I can't speak? Well, we all do this in our own

49:49 lives, and, and If you're like, I don't do it in my life, well then let me just leave you with this challenge. Take this week, pray and say genuinely ask. And the Lord will answer you. If you ask, Lord, what do I do in my own life that limits you? He's gonna give you a response. By the way, now, what are you going to do with that response when he gives it to you? That's, that's up to you. That's where you can influence or control what you do. Ave Sha, may our Father in heaven. Lord, we thank you for this day. Lord, I thank you for the Shabbat and, and this passage.

50:36 Lord, I pray that you would, uh, continue to, uh, guide us even as, as we're coming into this season, Lord of repentance, of turning to you. Lord, I pray that you would open up our eyes, Lord, that we can see you, that we can turn to you. We bless you and praise you in Yeshua's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace

51:48 in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua.