Acts 9: Become Indispensable to Your Church Like Dorcas

Introduction

Everyone has heard of Coco Chanel. Pastor Rusu, who came from Romania for a revival weekend at CF-Bern (Christian Fellowship Bern), reminds us that she revolutionized women's fashion in the twentieth century: she replaced the tight corset with comfortable clothing and created the little black dress, the collarless tweed jacket and the quilted handbag.

The book of Acts tells of another seamstress. Her name was Tabitha, which means Dorcas. She was of great worth to God, but her worth went far beyond the clothes she made. Hence the title of the message: "More Than Clothes."

Starting from Acts 9:36-41, the preacher shows what God considers the greatest miracle, what Dorcas did to make herself indispensable to her church, and how God extends the lives of those who love others.

Message Outline

1. The Rarest of Miracles

"Christianity is a religion of the supernatural." The New Testament is full of miracles: the multiplication of loaves for 5,000 people, water changed into wine, walking on water. Many of us also have our own stories of what God has done for us.
The greatest and rarest of all is resurrection, because death is the most final state of human experience. And yet God brings life back.
Every time Jesus raises someone, he does it for a specific reason. At Nain, he is moved with compassion for a widow who had lost her only son: "Young man, I tell you, arise!" (Luke 7:12-14).
For Jairus's daughter, he teaches that God is never late: "Don't be afraid, only believe" (Mark 5:35-36). Nothing is too late for God when faith is there.
For Lazarus, the last miracle before the road up to Jerusalem and the cross, he reveals the glory of God: "Didn't I tell you that if you believed, you would see God's glory?" (John 11:40).
That leaves the question: why was Tabitha, a disciple in Joppa, probably elderly, who fell ill and died, raised from the dead? "Death is sad, but we all die one day."

2. Tabitha Had Become Indispensable

What sets Tabitha apart is that she had made herself indispensable to the church in Joppa. Indispensable means absolutely necessary, something you cannot do without.
When she dies, the disciples cannot accept it. Hearing that Peter is in Lydda, a nearby town, they send for him: something must be done, they cannot go on without her.
The widows surround Peter in tears and show him the tunics and garments Dorcas used to make. Peter understands. He sends everyone out, prays and says: "Tabitha, get up!" (Acts 9:40). "Tabitha had become so indispensable to the church that she had to be raised from the dead."
The new birth resembles this miracle: through the Holy Spirit you received a new life, and God planted you in a local church. His intention is that every person who is born again becomes indispensable to that church.
"The greatest miracle is not that we were born again, but that we go from a useless life to an absolutely indispensable one."
Onesimus is an example. A runaway slave of Philemon, he ends up in prison with Paul, who tells him about Jesus. Paul then writes that he "once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me" (Philemon 1:11).
Paul ends the letter to the Romans with a long list of saints in the church in Rome (Romans 16). He takes the time to greet them one by one, because they had made themselves indispensable in service: they had given their hearts, opened their homes, helped the gospel. He knew that the gospel does not advance without people who make themselves indispensable.
During the Second World War, Nicholas Winton, an English stockbroker, organized secret train transports to bring Jewish children to safety in families across Europe. The last transport was discovered by the Nazi regime, and Winton, heartbroken, told no one about it. Years later, the surviving children found him: 669 children, who with their descendants number about 6,000 people. The Queen of England knighted him, "because he had made himself indispensable to the lives of others."

3. You Don't Have to Be Paul to Matter

Acts 9 is best known for the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus. Saul becomes the apostle Paul: a missionary on three continents, the author of a large part of the New Testament, a "Christian celebrity."
You might conclude that you have to become like Paul to be indispensable to your church. "We thank God for strong leaders like Paul. We need them."
But the same chapter shows that leaders are not the only ones who are indispensable. The talented, the strong, the visible and the gifted are not the only ones who count, because Dorcas was not like that.
She sewed clothes and tunics for the church. And those clothes meant far more than clothes.

4. Tailor-Made Love

Jesus said: "Love one another. Just as I have loved you" (John 13:34). Loving people is like making a tailor-made garment.
Some are short, others tall "like me," some slim, others less so. Some have broad shoulders, others broad hips. Each one prefers their own colors, style and cut.
"If you love people, you have to love them as they are and where they are." Love is personalized, with the needs and tastes of each person.
The pastor's wife bakes little apple cakes for a missionary pastor sent by their church to Moldova. Every time he returns to Romania for a conference, she brings them to church still warm, made especially for him.
One day, they invited a man from their church to dinner. He marveled at the bread she had baked in the oven. Since then, she bakes some from time to time to bring to him.
Dorcas had taken everyone's measurements. She knew who liked which colors and which style. "It was a tailor-made love."

5. A Love That Invests, Protects and Covers

Those garments represented a personal investment. Dorcas did not buy them in a shop: she sewed them by hand, at home, late at night, with tired hands and tired eyes.
"You cannot love people if you are not ready to invest in them." To invest is to give yourself, to accept detours and inconveniences, to let your rest be disturbed because you care for them.
Clothes protect. The pastor tells how he recently went to Russia without warm enough clothes: he got "sick as a dog" and spent the whole conference in his room taking medicine. In the same way, words and acts of love cover and protect people.
Clothes also show people at their best. We all have things we are ashamed of and do not want to show: a scar, a deformity, a stain. With a garment, nobody sees them.
Love does the same: "Above all things, be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). When you clothe people in love, you present them in their best light.

6. God Extends the Lives of Those Who Love

Many think that loving others means personal loss. That is partly true: the Bible calls us to take up our cross every day (Luke 9:23). The good Samaritan arrives late, tired, with an empty wallet (Luke 10:30-35). He loved at his own expense.
But the life of Dorcas sheds light on something else. Her life was full of good works, surrounded by people she loved. Then she died, and that was not the end: God extended her life. "If you become indispensable to your church, God will bless your life."
First, God fills your life. Love blesses the one who receives it and the one who gives it. "When you love people, you become truly rich, not necessarily in money, but rich in people."
In Romania, his church has run a camp for young people for ten years, born in the heart of a pastor close to him. The last day of the camp falls on that pastor's birthday. This year, there were pizzas and drinks for everyone, a gift, and "Happy Birthday" sung by 140 people. "This camp exists because it first existed in his heart." And the preacher concludes: "He is a rich man, because he loved."
Next, God can give a longer life. The Bible ties long life to the commandment to honor your parents (Ephesians 6:1-3). Hezekiah, ill, prayed and received fifteen more years (Isaiah 38:5). Dorcas received extra years: "The Bible nowhere says she died afterward. Maybe she is still alive!"
Finally, God gives life where there is none. The Shunammite woman and her husband set up a room for the prophet Elisha. They made themselves indispensable to God's work, and God gave a son to this woman who could not have one (2 Kings 4:8-17). A child not yet saved, a relationship to heal, a dead hope, finances: God can put life into it.
In 1540, Friedrich Myconius, a friend of Martin Luther, was dying and wrote him a farewell letter. Luther answered: "I command you in God's name to stay alive, for I still need you for the work of reforming the church." Myconius could no longer speak. Yet he recovered very quickly and lived two months longer than Luther.

7. More Than Clothes: The Call

"Coco Chanel only made clothes," and very expensive clothes. In Romania, the pastor smiles, you can find "Chanel" pieces at 10 francs in some markets, while in a boutique they might cost 2,000 francs.
Dorcas made far more than clothes. She made herself indispensable to her church and to the work of God, and her life was transformed in a miraculous way.
"Become indispensable to your church. Love people and serve them. Make yourself useful." This is the calling and the challenge the preacher leaves with the congregation.
He speaks first to those who have not yet given their lives to Jesus and who do not know where they would go if they died today. Jesus died and rose again on the third day. He wants to give you a new life, a new beginning, like a resurrection: believe in his death and resurrection, turn away from sin, ask forgiveness and receive him.
He also invites those who have drifted away to return to the Father, then all who want to commit more deeply to come forward and pray: "How can I help? How can I become useful?" It will be a blessing for the church, and even more for you.

Key Takeaways

The greatest miracle is not only the new birth: it is going from a useless life to a life that is indispensable to the church.
You do not need to be a visible leader like Paul. Dorcas sewed clothes, and the church in Joppa could not do without her.
To love is to love in a tailor-made way: people as they are and where they are, with their needs and tastes.
Love costs time and effort, but it protects others and covers a multitude of sins.
God extends the lives of those who love: he fills them with people, he can add years, he puts life where there was none left.

Personal Application

If you disappeared tomorrow, would your church say, as in Joppa: "We cannot go on without him" or "without her"?
Who around you could you love in a "tailor-made" way this week, taking into account what they truly like?
What are you ready to invest for others: your time, your rest, your comfort?
Do your words cover the weaknesses of others, or expose them?
What question will you ask God today: "How can I become useful in my church?"

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Peter raise Tabitha in Acts 9?

According to Pastor Rusu, Tabitha, also called Dorcas, had made herself indispensable to the church in Joppa. When she died, the disciples could not accept going on without her: they sent for Peter, and the widows showed him the tunics and garments she had made. She had become so necessary that God gave her life back.

What do the clothes made by Dorcas represent?

They represent far more than clothes: a tailor-made love, suited to each person; a personal investment, made of time and weariness; a love that protects like a coat in winter; and a love that covers the flaws of others, for love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).

Do you have to be a leader to become indispensable to your church?

No. The preacher thanks God for leaders like the apostle Paul, but he points out that the same chapter of Acts 9 speaks of Dorcas, a woman who sewed clothes. The indispensable people are not only the talented, the strong and the visible: they are those who love people and serve them.