Day 5: Miracles For Normal People

Scripture: Acts 4:8-17

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,

    which has become the cornerstone.’

12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”

Devotional: Peter was brought to stand trial before the religious leaders of the day. His crimes were that 1) he healed a man and 2) he preached the kingship of Jesus. The religious leaders were in a lurch because they didn’t want Jesus to be preached but they couldn’t deny that the man, standing before them, had been healed.

These two crimes were a very natural pairing in scripture. Miracles and preaching went hand in hand throughout the gospels and the book of Acts. Jesus healed wherever he taught about the kingdom. Signs and wonders validated his ministry. People were left in awe after hearing him teach because his teaching came with power.  Jesus’ goal wasn’t to get people into heaven when they die. His goal was to see people freed from the bondage of evil, brought into relationship with the Father, and saved in the present. The truth of the good news was proven miraculously in the moment that it was spoken. For Jesus, freedom and eternal life starts, now.

The book of Hebrews again set the expectation that God proves the truth of Jesus with supernatural power. “His salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.  God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” (Heb. 2:3-5). The wonders that come with the gospel make clear that God’s salvation is now real, a tangible reality.*

The church of Acts followed in the footsteps of Jesus’ miraculous ministry. Why? Because they were a community brought together by the Holy Spirit aka, the Spirit of Jesus. Signs and wonders were a natural outworking of shared life in the presence of God. Jesus made his home in their community. His ministry continued through them in its fullness. The miracles they saw weren’t the result of trumped up emotional experiences like we see championed by cheesy televangelists, wonky prophets, and others who are just plain crazy. They witnessed miracles because they were a Jesus community who were gathered by His Spirit and who witnessed to His truth.  

We see throughout the book of Acts that miracles are a sign that 1) the Holy Spirit has brought together a Christian community and, 2) the gospel of Jesus is truth. I have witnessed many casual healing miracles that have flowed from those two points. I know a man who gained his sight in one eye, while taking communion...I’ve seen a young woman’s ears open up after she heard about Jesus for the first time...A friend of mine once prayed for a carpenter’s broken collarbone, while the man was doing work on his home. The carpenter went to the doctor later that week and the x-ray showed the bone was miraculously healed - months ahead of schedule. The stories could go on and on.

The point is this. These miracles weren’t the product of forced emotional experiences or cheesy televangelist sales pitches. They resulted from the natural overflow of Christian community and evangelism. They were miracles for normal people. 

Miracles in the (Acts) communities are not to be described only as accompanying legitimating signs of the preaching of the gospel, but also as signs of the presence of the Spirit.* 

Is there not a burning in our hearts to experience the power of Jesus alongside the truth of Jesus? This is what the first century church experienced. The miracles of Acts were miracles for normal people. And, If we commit to sharing life in the Spirit and to sharing our faith with others, then we will see the same happen in our day.

Prayer: Who in your life needs to know about Jesus? I invite you to pray for your unsaved friends and family. Ask God to share his thoughts and his heart for them with you. Also, would you intercede for the Arise house churches? Let’s ask that God would work the miraculous through our life together, and through the evangelism of our community.

*Quotes taken from NT scholar Gerhard Lohfink