So we're coming to Acts chapter 9 this evening, to the verse 36 onward, that passage that we read. Over the last six weeks, we've been looking at a number of men. I suppose seven weeks. We had five in July, and the last two was Stephen, and then Philip the Evangelist. And we started out looking at the Christian heritage that we have in this land of Canada. And then it struck me that we must not forget those women and godly ladies who have served the Lord so wonderfully well. Did you ever notice that in the Bible the Lord never called women to be disciples, nor apostles, when he sent out the seventy, and then later when he sent out the twelve and gave them the commission, that he did not call women to be apostles." And then as you move on in the New Testament, you do not find a pattern where women were called to be pastors of churches. You'll also find that when churches appointed elders and deacons, that they were to be men. Now, of course, that creates the question, why not? Are women less intelligent? Are they less capable? Do they not have talents in those areas and skills that might be of use to God? Do we not recognize that behind every good man is a good woman? Well, today we come to look at a woman. Her name is Dorcas, and from her life and service to God, we learn that the work and the witness of women in the church really matters, and matters a lot. Now, you've probably noticed in our Bible reading that this woman had two names. She has a Hebrew name and then a New Testament, most likely a Greek name. Her first name is Tabitha. Now, that word means gazelle. You know, the animal, the gazelle, one of the fastest moving animals in the desert. And actually, if you look up the books, you will find that there was a particular type of gazelle that is called the Dorcas gazelle. And it is found in Israel, certainly in the desert areas, and in vast areas of North Africa. Now, because gazelles are renowned for their speed, even motor companies have used the name. And there was a car way back in the 1950s called the Chevy Gazelle. Did anyone ever ride in one? Have you ever seen one? Well, it probably was around before I was born. So, there are not too many of them on the roads or even in show places today. Now, In the 1960s, there was also a car called the Golden Gazelle. But this Dorcas Gazelle was not golden. It was more a rusty brown, not the smooth-haired type, but rather more hairy and fuzzy-looking, smaller, about two feet high, but certainly was very swift in the desert. Now gazelles are renowned for their resourcefulness. I read, I don't have the experience on this, but I read that these gazelles can live for years without water. They can find moisture in plants, bark of trees, and bulbs in the ground. And so in the desert, they can survive and last enduring harsh heat, lack of rain for months and months and months on end. These gazelles are also social animals. They like to graze and be in herds. Now, sometimes, in harsh conditions, they might be found just in pairs. But, for the most part, they will congregate, they will operate in flocks, and they will move around together. Now, if you think of that, those characteristics of the animal, the gazelle, they do come into this woman Dorcas. And we need to look tonight to see some of these resilient characteristics, some of this efficiency, we might call it, in the character, in the life, and in the service of this woman Dorcas who lived at Joppa. And so, I trust tonight that this message on Dorcas will stir up the ladies in our congregation. Now, we have a few here tonight, and I hope that others in our congregation will listen in to this message, and they will catch the spirit, and they will be zealous to serve the Lord with the gifts and talents that they have. And we do not want it to be said that there is no place for ladies to serve in the church. There is no place for them to do a work for God. Now, what I want to do tonight is to take the letters for Dorcas, D-O-R-C-A-S, and make that my sermon. And the first thing you'll notice here in verse 36 is that this woman was a disciple. disciple. Now, in New Testament times, the term disciple had to be earned. It wasn't something that was merely conferred just because you had a lit profession. This meant commitment, and it meant a life of service in the cause of Christ. Now, a disciple could also be a student who is seeking experience, opportunities to serve, and certainly we can put Dorcas into that category as well. is she would have been baptized. Baptism is the initiatory rite into the church, and showing that you have given up the old life, given up serving other religions or idols, and now become a follower of the Lord Jesus. And so, as someone said before, ask not what Christianity can do for you, but ask what you can do for the cause of Christ and his church. Too often, the church is looked upon as a mere place of convenience, a place where we can get away with doing very little and enjoying all the benefits. And sadly, in many churches, it becomes a normal statistic that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. And so, this means discipline. Discipline. To be a disciple of the Lord Jesus requires discipline. Now, because we read Bible stories and we read the accounts of the men and women who went around two by two and served the Lord, we always think of a disciple as someone that's just huckstering about from place to place, knocking here, knocking there, talking to this one and that one, living a rather haphazard life. But in the New Testament church, And Acts is the transitional book in the Bible. It is transitional from Judaism to Christianity. It's transitional from nomadic discipleship and traveling to the local church planted, established in a city or a location with people coming together forming that congregation and serving the Lord within the ranks of the church. And that's what I want you to picture tonight, that God has placed us in a particular place. He calls us to a particular ministry, and we need to find our way of utilizing our gifts, our time, our talents, And I suppose I may add our tithe. You know, when that offering plate goes around, you don't want to be expecting all the others to be contributing, and you do nothing. We all have a part in supporting the work of God. Now, if you were to ask me a question, Ian, What is the number one thing that I should do as a Christian to serve the Lord in his church? What would your answer be? The one thing that stands out, priority number one, above all others, what is the thing that a Christian should do so that their life counts as a disciple for Christ? My answer, consistently over many years, has been keep the Lord's Day. One day in seven, to honor, to worship, and in that context, to serve the Lord. Because worship and service go together. Your presence becomes an encouragement to others. Your attendance makes the function of the church possible. Your prayers in the prayer room of the church, and we do exhort you to come to the prayer times, whether they be on the pre-service prayer times or the midweek prayer time, but your entering in and being in place and hearing your voice calling on the Lord in prayer. Now, that obviously lets you know that we welcome women to pray aloud in the church. Some look upon that statement in the New Testament, let the women keep silence in the church, that the women should never be heard at all. If you take that to its end conclusion, you would say women shouldn't even sing in the church. Not even in the congregation, let them be silent. Men only sing. No, the Bible does not teach that. Nor does the Bible teach that women should be silent in the prayer meeting. The women in the New Testament had a very vital prayer ministry in the church in various situations. And so, number one, keep the Lord's day. One day in seven. And that demands discipline. We're living in an age and a culture where the pressure is on to do so many other things. But let a Christian keep one day, and you will find that so many other things will fall into place as you worship and serve the Lord. And that will work for the health of your soul, it will work for the discipline of your family, and it will work for the good of the church as we keep the Lord's day special. When we talk about keeping the Lord's day holy, simply means keeping it special. It is God's day that we set aside and set apart for him. What would number two then be? What would number two be? Make your home a little church. And this is something where the mother in the home or the wife in the home has a very big role. What happens in your home will determine your discipleship. Not just one day per week, the Lord's Day, a special day, a day of worship and a day of service, but Monday to Saturday, become now your way of worshiping God in your home. And there you seek to feed your soul and to be separate from the world. And so what is on television, what is the media, the entertainment of the world, how much of that you let into your home will determine what you are doing as a disciple of the Lord Jesus. Number three, be a witness to others. Bear witness to others as a disciple. Now, I bring all of that together because Dorcas was a disciple. Could we give you that name tonight? Could we give to the ladies in this church the name disciple, that you have set your life, set your weekly program, that you serve the Lord. in a disciplined way that you may bring honor and glory to him. Now we move on to the O, and we see this woman was orderly and organized. If you look at verse 36, it says, this woman was full of good works and alms deeds which she did. Now, We spend a lot of time, as we minister the gospel to the unsaved, tabooing good works. And we say good works will never save you, good works is the devil's trick to confuse you and to make you think that you don't need salvation by grace, the gift of God. And we preach against good works continually as we focus on the unconverted. But once you're a Christian, good works are good. They are not done, of course, to be saved, but they are done because you are saved, and because you want to follow the Lord and serve Him. And if you look at this, verse 36, you'll see that Dorcas, she was really a very busy lady ministering to the saints. In verse 36, it says, full of good works and alms deeds, which she did. She wasn't just Dictating, go here, go there. She did. And then down in verse 39, as they came to weep over her death, we're told at the end of verse 39, the widow stood by him weeping, showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made. And so she put her talents as a dressmaker, as one good with the needle and the thread or the wool, and she knitted and made coats and garments for those who were unable to clothe themselves. Oh, for a few dozen ladies just like Dorcas. The worst thing that a Christian can do in God's work is to promise thing something and not deliver it. Dorcas wasn't like that. Dorcas went to work And she did what she said she was going to do. It's always better to under-promise and over-deliver. And that's Dorcas. She didn't make a big fuss about what she was doing, but she did a lot. and her name and work went before her. And in this way, she was like that gazelle, resilient, resourceful, able to do a lot with a little. And in that way, she served the Lord. Now, coming down to practical terms, to our own congregation, in our own church, in what areas may ladies so serve? Well, recently we had an appeal for helpers with our tiny tots, and we need ladies who will take that on the schedule. Sunday school teaching. There is a great need for teachers and helpers in Sunday school. Children's ministry. preschool. We have a preschool that meets downstairs Monday to Friday. They would welcome someone to go in and speak to those boys and girls either weekly, and it might grow into daily, if there was a lady that was is willing to do it. And if you're interested in that, talk to me. I will be delighted to hear of your interest in going in any time. Well, there's certain hours it may not work, but I'm sure a suitable time could be arranged that you could go in and just sit with those children, read them stories. You don't have to be a scholar. Just read them the Bible stories. Pray with them. Sing with them. and what a little ministry that could be to those boys and girls. There are some churches that exhort their people to have vehicles, some of them large, that they can bring children to the church. In these days, it's a bit of a clumsy affair for churches to have buses—buses and vehicles that have to be insured. You need a second person on the vehicle doing the round, and it becomes very expensive and very demanding. But if you have people who have their own vehicle, they can bring few children along with them, what a ministry that can be in the local church. And what a blessing that could be if you could bring even just one or two children along to the Sunday school. Now that will commence in a few weeks' time, and you could begin working right now. thinking of families and neighbors that you could talk to about bringing their children along to the Sunday school. And you could make that your ministry, your way of serving the Lord in his church. And so, here's the O for Dorcas. She was orderly and organized. We come now to the R, and we see that she was remembered. In verse 39, Well, of course, we have to tell the story that she became sick and died. You read of that in verse 37. And then when you get to verse 39, Peter arose and went with them, and when he was come, they brought him to the upper chamber, and all the widows stood by him, Weeping. You see the impact that Dorcas had upon these women in the community and in the church. She was of service and lived with purpose. Now I want you to notice it says at the end of verse 39, while she was with them. In other words, up until the point that she became sick and died. These are the things that she did. She made these garments, these coats, and she gave them to the people while she was with them. And you know, when you think about it, that's all the time that we've got. Everyone has just a little window of time, a little opportunity to serve, because one day we're going to be gone. One day, these bodies will not function as we would want them. we will become sick and frail, or we will become to the point where we cannot conduct any real practical physical activity, and we will have to give up that work. And then, of course, one day we're going to die. And as we get older, we're all the more conscious. Time is short. The years of opportunity are declining, and we need to be busy in the kingdom of the Lord. In another month or so, it will have been 40 years since I entered Bible college. It was 1977. I can remember that first day very well. Now, if you'd asked me what happened a couple of weeks ago, I probably couldn't remember, but I remember that event when I first arrived for my first day in Bible college, 40 years ago. And in all of those years, I've been preaching almost every Sunday of my life. I could probably count in my two hands the number of Sundays that I have not preached at all at all on a Sunday. And all of these years have gone by, 33 of them right here in Surrey, and they're not going to be forever. And there's coming a day when I'm going to have to say, I cannot do this anymore. And we need men and women to work for God. And we need to realize our time is short. And ladies, I appeal to you, work while it is day. For the night cometh when no man can work. Then we move to the C for Dorcas, and in verse 37, we see that she was cared for in death. It says here that it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died, whom, when they had washed, they laid her in the upper chamber. Now, what people do with the bodies of their loved ones tells you a whole lot about their faith. When you read the stories of the heathen, the pagan, the many other religions of the world, the things that they do at death, some of them are hairy and scary. But we as Christians honor the dead. To some people, the body is nothing. It's just now food for the trees or the grass. But in the Bible, the Christian message is that these bodies are the temple of the Lord. And we see the honorable, reverent care that was given to Dorca's body when she died. They prepared it and put it in an upper room. And of course, according to the custom, there would be a form of embalming, and then there would be a burial. Now, the evolutionary notion is that we are just part of the earth, these molecules return back to the dust, and the body means absolutely nothing more than just the cycle and the recycle. But the Christian view is that the body is the Lord's. And this body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. And we have to preach the resurrection. We have to bring in the great hope that we have as Christians, that one day these bodies shall rise. These bodies shall be raised up again and transformed into new bodies. And there is a link between the first body that we're given, the body that We live in, serve God in, the body that returns to the dust, but that same body will be raised and will one day shine in the glorious presence of the Lord. And so as Christians, we have a different viewpoint of what we should do with the body. Every example that we have in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is burial. some form of burial. A burial could take place underground, with soil, or it could be a vacant tomb, as in which the Lord was buried. And it's just a hole in the rock, and a stone is put in front of it, but the body is put there in a reverential way, and it is left until the day of the resurrection. That is the biblical pattern, and I don't see any other pattern. I don't We don't have a lot of information beyond what we know of the resurrection, how that body will return and be raised, but it certainly is the practice that we find in the Bible. And I note here the care that was given to Dorcas' body. And as they mourned her passing, they remembered her witness for the Lord. That brings me now to the S. Oh, sorry, the A. She arose and she came forth alive. Verse 40 and verse 41. Peter put them all forth, kneeled down, and prayed. And turning him to the body, said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up. And when he had called the saints and widows, presented her This is the Christianity of the first century. While the apostles were alive, while these men were there, they did such miracles as raising the dead. And of course, it is a great witness of the fact that Christ is risen. and he has empowered his apostles to perform such miracles that they might demonstrate the power of God. And, of course, all of this is for our faith. We don't need miracles today. We don't need miracles all around us, because these things are done, and they are established, written in the Scriptures, and we have these things for our faith. But we certainly are rejoicing in an empty tomb, and the resurrection of Christ is what is the foundation of Tabitha's resurrection, and it is the foundation of your resurrection and mine, that we shall come forth alive. Then we move to the S of Dorcas, and that is her sound witness. Many, verse 42, many believed in the Lord. This witness of Dorcas and her resurrection was absolutely undeniable. Now, one of the ways that the resurrection is denied is to try and deny the person ever died. But you can't deny that with Dorcas. They had prepared her body. They had washed her corpse. They had left her in the upper room. They had handled her. She was dead, stone cold dead. And yet, here she is come alive. And her resurrection became a mighty witness in the city of Joppa. Now tied to her prior Christian profession of the kind of woman that she was, the testimony that she had, this woman who did so much to care for the needs of the people. She was a disciple. She was art and art for the Lord. And now, raised from the dead, it was a tremendous and a wonderful witness for the Savior. Now, how do you apply this to women here tonight? How do we take this amazing, startling resurrection of Dorcas and translate that into your witness? Well, there's another kind of resurrection that we have had, and that is the new birth. We are born of the Spirit. We are raised from the dead of our sins, and we live for the Lord in the power of a new life. And ladies, I pray that God gives you the power of a new life for Christ. that you have the power to live in the light of the gospel because Christ died for you. Christ purchased you, your body, your soul. He has given you the Holy Spirit to live in you and empower you so that you get victory over sin, that you don't just become a stand-by person watching others but that you become a worker, a servant, a faithful ministry for the Lord that will honor him all of your days. So Dorcas was a gazelle, resilient. She was a survivor and she was certainly one who was out and out for the Lord. Now there's something else I learned about gazelles And that is, they know how to use those horns. And if you can think of a gazelle, the horns are pointed backwards, and they are quite long. But if those gazelles get into a dangerous situation, they know how to use those horns. They know how to defend themselves and stand up for themselves. And it's not the first person who has been mauled by those horns. if that's the right term, more like gored with those horns. And women, you need to be the best defender of the faith. You need to be the one who can stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ in your home, in this church, You're the one who can put backbone into your husband or your sons. You're the one who can be the strong anchor in the cause of Christ in your family and in the church. Because we need women who first of all know the Lord, who are grounded in the truth, and who will stand for the Lord Jesus. Don't be a wimp. Don't be a defeatist. Don't be weak, but be strong for the Lord Jesus. I quoted earlier in the introduction that behind every good man is a good woman. In my observations over 40 years of Christian ministry, that's exactly how it is. Any man I know that has been faithful either in the mission field, in the pulpit, or in the church, in whatever sphere of service, he has been able to accomplish and serve the Lord the way he did, because his wife was all behind him. Last year at the conference in Toronto, Dr. John McKnight preached, and he quoted a colleague of his, and somehow it came out in the message. I can't remember the context, but it came out in the message, and the question was, how long can a man keep preaching the gospel? And the answer is, as long as his wife lets him. And there is a lot more truth to that than you might ever know. Because it is a wife, and it could be an elder's wife, a deacon's wife, could be someone who joins the church and is zealous and wants to just throw their weight into the witness of the cause of Christ. And it's often the wife who has to make sacrifices. Times at home when the husband is not there, going to prayer meetings, and you're left looking after the children. Maybe it's the financial restraint. How can we support the work of the church when we can't even make the budget work at home? All of this comes into it. And ladies, I pray that you be a Dorcas. You be a gazelle. You be resilient. You be one who is set to make your life count for the Lord Jesus. A poor old woman in China who had been converted, but who seemed unwilling to be baptized, was asked why she hesitated. Why, she replied, and she had the tears running down her cheeks. You know that Jesus said to his disciples, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And she says, now I am an old woman, nearly 75 years of age and almost blind. I can tell my husband about the gospel. I can tell my son and his wife about the gospel. And I'm willing to speak to my neighbors or even to a village or two, but I could never go into all the world. Now, do you think that he will call me to be a disciple? Well, when she understood that the Lord only expected her to do her utmost best, then she was greatly relieved that she too could be baptized and be known as a servant of the Lord in his church. God doesn't ask us to do the impossible. But he does ask us to do what is right in front of us. And here, what we have learned tonight, is what God has for us. For Dorcas, it was a ministry to the poor, the needy, to assisting, helping. And oh, what a testimony she had. And we thank God for the women in the Church of Christ. And we think of all those men, we learned about those missionaries, Jonathan Goforth, Thomas Crosby. Can you think of the young woman that he married in Ontario, way back in 1873 or so, and brought her all the way out to British Columbia, Wasn't even a train to come on at that time. The train had not yet been established. Coming to Chilliwack, New Westminster, Victoria, up the coast to Fort Simpson, amongst First Nations people, there were no conveniences, no comforts. They had to build their own home. with logs that were floated in. It was hard, grinding poverty. There were no doctors. These people lost children, which we would just go to the walk-in clinic and have them taken care of within 24 hours. But these men and women served and sacrificed for Christ. I think we as Christians today have lost the sacrificial attitude. Because after all, to be a Christian is to take up the cross. And we're not asked always to die for Christ, but we are asked to live for him. And I wonder tonight, will you dedicate your life to the service of the Lord? If it's in this church, I say amen. If some other church, let the Lord lead you. But serve the Lord with all your heart. Say with Joshua and your family, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.