Teaching Text

Acts 9:36-43

In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them. Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed.

Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

Sermon Recap

This Sunday, Pastor Keithen Schwahn continued our series through the Book of Acts, The Fifth Act, with a teaching from Acts 9:36-43, the story of Peter taking a risk of faith that resulted in raising Tabitha, a faithful disciple of Jesus also known as Dorcas, from the dead.

He began with our current context: New York City’s central ethos is reputation, and aesthetic value and cultural prestige are often valued more highly than usefulness. We often find ourselves asking: What am I known for? What do people think of me? This desire for recognition is not inherently wrong—it speaks to a deep human longing to be affirmed and known, because we were created for recognition by an eternal source. However, a culture that worships reputation, this desire easily becomes toxic and exhausting. We may strive for influence, curate our images, and measure our worth through how others perceive us. This false system forms a gap between who we feel we are and who Jesus says we can be.

This passage reveals a different way to live through both Peter and Tabitha’s choices. The early disciples were not motivated by reputation but by a desire to imitate Jesus. Their reputation wasn’t built on status but on the spiritual authority entrusted to them by Jesus. Throughout the book of Acts, we witness them doing the work Jesus did: casting out demons, healing the sick, and proclaiming the Kingdom of God. In this story, Peter is invited into one of the most staggering acts of imitation yet: raising someone from the dead, something he had only seen Jesus do and only read about in the accounts of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Pastor Keithen posed that the challenge before Peter held that same internal gap many of us wrestle with and find filled with fear of others’ opinions, self-doubt, lack of experience, or disappointment. Only through the Holy Spirit, we are called to fill that gap with consecrated confidence—a posture of full submission to God, surrendering our reputation and being willing to risk for the Kingdom.

Peter embodies this attitude by stepping out in faith, without waiting to feel perfectly qualified and despite his experiences so far, and ends up confronted with the reputation of Tabitha. Known in her community for doing good by helping the poor and clothing widows with garments made with care and dignity, she had a reputation not only as a faithful disciple of Jesus, but as an advocate for the marginalized. She leveraged her skills and her social position to restore honor to those whom society disregarded. Even as a woman and a widow—roles with little status in her time—Tabitha lived a life of potent, Kingdom-minded faithfulness. Peter, filled with consecrated confidence, goes on to imitate Jesus and raise Tabitha back to life, demonstrating a key truth: proclaiming the Kingdom and demonstrating the Kingdom often go hand in hand. The same Spirit that empowered Jesus is available to us today.

Pastor Keithen closed with two invitations regarding reputation. First, that we might live a life of potent faithfulness, using our skills and surroundings to bless others—even if we never get recognition for it here on earth. Second, for us to be willing to risk our reputation for the sake of imitating Jesus. We shouldn’t avoid acts of faith because they might fail or cost social standing, but instead be more concerned with imitating Jesus than how others perceive us.