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No Longer Paralyzed: Walking in Lydda
Aeneas of Lydda: “I can walk!

Paralyzed until Peter’s missionary journey

What must it be like to be paralyzed, either from birth or as the result of a traumatic impact of this fragile flesh and bones at any time?

We have seen paralyzed men many times in Scripture. And Simon Peter had met paralyzed or lame men at various times in his lifetime. For this Apostle, who by faith had walked on water when Jesus had called out to him from their boat, Peter certainly would have had great empathy for any person who could not walk on the many roads of Galilee, Samaria and Judea or the streets of Jerusalem.

Luke has just shown us in Acts that now Peter and the Apostles are no longer confined to Jerusalem, but travel as missionaries for the Gospel of the risen Jesus throughout their beloved Israel.

https://talkofjesus.com/acts-9-12-more-acts-of-peter/
Acts 9:31 Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified.

Acts on a Missionary Journey of Peter

32 Now it came to pass, as Peter went through all parts of the country, that he also came down to the saints who dwelt in Lydda.
Acts of the Apostles 9:32 NKJV

Please understand something of Simon’s mission from the Lord: Peter travels the same roads between the cities of his fellow Jews where the Apostle followed his Teacher and Lord, the Anointed One, Yeshua.

Luke 22: Recalling the Lord’s Supper
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From the Hebrew Names Version of Luke's Gospel
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When the hour had come, he sat down with the twelve apostles..

“I have earnestly desired to eat this Pesach with you before I suffer..

.. “This is my body which is given for you.

Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you..

But you are those who have continued with me in my trials. I confer on you a kingdom, even as my Father conferred on me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom.

You will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Yisra’el.”

Πέτρος

Petros in Lud

Simon Peter’s journeys from the hills of Jerusalem bring him down to the plain of Sharon, which lead through Jewish towns approaching the Mediterranean ports controlled by Rome, like Joppa and Caesarea (from where they just sent Saul back to Tarsus).

32 Now it came about that Kefa, passing through all the parts of Eretz Yisrael, came down also to Moshiach’s kadoshim dwelling in Lud.
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Simon was given the name Peter by Jesus. The apostles name translates as "ROCK." (for more info about the Aramaic form, Kefa, click HERE)

Λύδδα - Lydda [lud'-dah] Lydda = "strife" - a town 9 miles (15 km) from Joppa, and is the first town on the northernmost of the two roads between that place and Jerusalem 

It's Hebrew name לֹד
lōḏ Lod = "travail" in the plain of Sharon in the territory of Benjamin was the head of a family of returning exiles from Babylon.
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Aeneas of Lydda

33 There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him,

“Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.”

Ἰησοῦς Χριστός ἰάομαι σύ
JESUS CHRIST HEALS YOU

Immediately he got up.

Imagine that you are Aeneas, a paralyzed saint in Lydda who believes that Yeshua IS the Anointed One of Israel who IS risen from the grave after His horrific Blood Sacrifice on a Roman Cross in Jerusalem.

And now, into your town of Lud on his way to Jaffa comes Simon Peter, who in Jerusalem had stood in the Temple with a man lame from birth clinging to his side as the Apostle preached to the crowds. Many witnesses have already passed through Lydda.

Like the man who had clung to John and Peter, YOU are no longer paralyzed!

So as the Apostle had done in the Temple, Peter continued to preach the gospel of Jesus the Christ to all in your town with you (Aeneas) as a sign of proof from God standing at his side.

35 So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

How about you? – Is YOUR faith paralyzed?

Jesus and the Apostles had seen it many, many times. After some sign from God many came to follow the Lord, the Anointed One of the Father. They could not deny the powerful sign — the miracle of God; YET some remained paralyzed – confined to their failing flesh of this brief life even as they marvelled at men and women of faith in Jesus doing what only God could empower.

We have all heard the amazing signs before, even as Peter or another Apostle or one of their many disciples came into our town.

A Man Lowered Through a Roof
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Aeneas the paralyzed man may have heard of this man whose name we do not know and his faithful friends who we also do not know by name. YOU have heard the story of this great sign as Jesus taught to a houseful of those paralyzed in their faith.

From Luke's Gospel & also (Mat 9:2–8; Mar 2:1–12 )

Peter and the Apostles had been there..
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One day He was teaching, and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the Law sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing..

.. because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.

“Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”

.. Who can forgive sins, except God alone?” ..

“Why are you thinking this way in your hearts? Which is easier, to say: ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”

He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher, and go home.”

Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your own bed.” Immediately he got up.
ACTS 9:34 καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Πέτρος Αἰνέα ἰᾶταί σε Ἰησοῦς Χριστός ἀνάστηθι καὶ στρῶσον σεαυτῷ καὶ εὐθέως ἀνέστη

And immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.
Gospel of Luke 5:25

GET UP.

Saul of Tarsus got up after he had seen the Lord Jesus. Apneas got up after the Apostle Peter commanded him in the Name of Jesus Christ.

IMMEDIATELY he got up, Scripture records of those men like the paralytic on the mat before Jesus.

So what keeps YOU from immediately wanting to TALK OF JESUS CHRIST to others?
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Please comment on this sign of healing in the name of Jesus Christ TODAY.

May grace, peace and the love of our Lord heal your frozen witness for the only Gospel which raises the paralyzed perishing soul.

Roger@TalkofJESUS.com

ACTS of the Apostle Peter: to be continued...
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March 22, 2022
Stephen: Indictment of our Founding Fathers
All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face like it was the face of an angel.
ACTS 6:15 :: Hebrew Names Version (HNV)

Another Trial before Judah’s Ruling Fathers

7 Now the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
ἀρχιερεύς – archiereus

Let’s be clear who Jerusalem’s fathers, in charge of these trials, are:
- A new trial now of Stephen
- Two previous hearings or trials of Peter and John
- And most controversial of all, their trial and crucifixion of Jesus, of whom these Jews now preach as risen from death!
And He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to put Him to death

Gospel of Luke 19:40 NASB20 – Describing Jesus’ opposition by the chief priests.

After Jesus, they next tried to discredit Peter and John

Arrested AND Released

Yet an angel had released Peter and John from the prison of the High Priest

And now, Stephen

Stephen, not one of the Twelve Disciples of Jesus, but a newly appointed disciple of the Disciples. A leading man among seven, overseeing multitudes of these ‘Christ’ followers in Jerusalem’s growing congregations – an overt challenge to the authority of its religious-political leaders responsible for their Roman ‘peace.’

How will Stephen defend Christ before Jerusalem’s political fathers?

Not betrayed, but like the Apostles falsely accused.

Acts of the Apostles 7: (and here, ACTS of Stephen)
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Stephanos will reply to the Hebrew High Priest of the Sanhedrin in the common Hellenized Greek of Roman-occupied Jerusalem:
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7:2 ὁ δὲ ἔφη ἄνδρες ἀδελφοὶ καὶ πατέρες ἀκούσατε ὁ θεὸς τῆς δόξης ὤφθη τῷ πατρὶ ἡμῶν Ἀβραὰμ ὄντι ἐν τῇ Μεσοποταμίᾳ πρὶν ἢ κατοικῆσαι αὐτὸν ἐν Χαρράν

“Hear me, brethren and fathers!

Stephen now begins his defense with their common history, recorded in Scripture and supposedly taught by Jerusalem’s fathers, shepherds of Judah, in their synagogues. He includes himself as their Jewish brothers, born to a line of their own patriarchs.

Abraham

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and He said to him,

Leave your country and relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.

4 Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.
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Here's Stephen's first point about the Patriarchs (ruling fathers):
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“But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land.
ACTS 7:5a NLT – Stephen’s defense to the fathers of Jerusalem trying him for following the Messiah Jesus

6 But God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be strangers in a land that was not theirs, and they would enslave and mistreat them for four hundred years…
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We know that Stephen is leading up to Moses leading them from Egypt (in ancient times).
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.. and so Abraham fathered Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs.
ACTS 7:8b NASB
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Nothing too controversial in Steven's opening argument to these contemporary patriarchs of the Sanhedrin, right?
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Ἰωσήφ – Joseph – יוֹסֵף

“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him..

11 “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers..
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Joseph's brothers, patriarchs of Israel DID NOT RECOGNIZR their rejected brother, whom these eleven fathers had  thought would be brought down by slavery.
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14 After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all.

15 Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought..

Joseph saves Israel (Jacob) and its Patriarchs (his brothers, who finally had bowed down to Joseph)
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Jerusalem's fathers (who sit in judgment of Stephen) continue to listen intently to the disciple of Jesus' Disciples they indicted for speaking against the Law. 
The innocence of an angel shines from his face as God-breathed words flow forth from his tongue.
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Stephen reveals God’s Promise through Abraham

“But as the time of the promise which God had assured to Abraham was approaching, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt..
Acts 7:17 NASB – Stephen’s history of the Patriarchs of Israel
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FOUR HUNDRED YEARS WILL ELAPSE (as we know) between this first part of Stephen's story about the blessings of the patriarchs and the second part of his history of slavery in Egypt.
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.. until another king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
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To be continued...
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January 7, 2022
A Church Seized by Signs and Wonders
Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
ACTS of signs and wonders by the Apostles 5:11 NIV

ACTS of Signs and Wonders

What has just happened?
- Ananias and Saphira – followers of the Apostles struck dead at Peter’s feet!
At this point in Luke’s account of the ACTS of the church we encounter an unexpected sign and wonder which struck great fear into the church.

Two believers lied to the Holy Spirit, after which each immediately met withthe judgment of God – death.

Don’t miss this:

Peter Replied: Signs Preached from Solomon’s Porch

.. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”
Acts of the Apostles 3:26 ESV

In addition to the tongues of fire, a lame man made to walk and the Apostles walking out of a locked prison without explanation, EVERYONE begins to see signs of the power of GOD at work though them. When reports of the deaths of two disciples of the Apostles reach the ears of Jerusalem, MANY fear what could happen as these signs and wonders continue.

Acts 5:

12 Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem.

14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

Signs and Wonders since Pentecost have already caused a stir in Jerusalem

Speaking the Word of God with Boldness

parrēsia -all out-spokenness, i.e. frankness, bluntness, publicity; by implication, assurance:—bold confidence, × freely, × openly, × plainly

Jerusalem’s officials also fear the Apostles, not only because of their own wickedness, but since undeniable signs and wonders already performed in their midst in Herod’s temple threaten their tenuous political leadership of the temple..

Arrested AND Released

from ACTS 5 – AFTER GOD STRUCK DOWN ANANIAS AND SAPHIRA

“Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

[Peter has convicted them of their complicity in Jesus’ Sacrifice on the Cross; however the Apostle had also stated that God the Father had allowed it AND that JESUS had been raised from the grave!]

But Peter and the apostles answered,

“We must obey God rather than men.

Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
ACTS 4:30 NIV + Prayer of the Apostles

Signs and Wonders from GOD!

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
ACTS 4:31 NKJV
- ACTS 5:14 And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,
  - 15 so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them.
- 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem,
  - bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits,
  - and all of them were healed.
- 17 Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out..
  - Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.
- 42 And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.
- ACTS 6: Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number..
- 7 The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem,
- and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
To be continued…
December 15, 2021