A Miracle to Confirm the Word

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 24 January 2016

We are dealing now with the birth of the church. Our Lord has sent the Holy Spirit to equip the church to do the work that He had begun to do. Jesus gave them everything they needed to finish His unfinished work. On the day of Pentecost when the Spirit of God came in Acts 2 all of these ingredients came together in that church and mighty indeed was that church. In the first day 3,000 were added to the beginning 120 and it continued to grow today in 2016.

And from that very first day the Spirit of God gave gifts to the members of the church by which they could build the body up. Certain grace gifts, and spiritual gifts, by which they could minister to each other to build the body. In addition to that, to that early church, God gave certain sign gifts. Gifts which were not meant for the building of the body, but were meant to be signs to unbelievers for the purpose of believing of the gospel.

Jesus said it is not only a matter of the words that I say, but you should believe me for the sake of my works. In other words, the miracles that He did corroborated the words that He said. Nicodemus understood that. He said in John 3:1, "We know that you are a teacher who came from God not because of what you say only, but because nobody can do the things that you do except God be with him."

So Christ Himself accredited His ministry by certain miracles. In the early church, He gave that same capacity to the apostles in order that the word that they spoke might also be confirmed by signs and wonders and mighty deeds. The confirmation of any man's ministry today is not that any longer, it is whether he matches the word of God. This has become the standard because the New Testament is God's final revelation. 2 Corinthians 12:12 says, “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.”

Now we have studied that those gifts were miracles, healing, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. They were signs not only to unbelieving Jews, but unbelieving people confirming that the gospel was true. Now one of those gifts was the gift of healing. God granted that to them to verify that they were divine messengers. And when they would preach, there always would be miracles, which would be evidence to the people that God was speaking.

And after the miracle of the languages in Acts 2, 3,000 believed. After the miracle of the lame man in Acts 3, by the time you get to Acts 4:4, there were already 5,000 believing men, plus women and children. And there may have been as many as 15,000 converts within the first week of the birth of the church. So it wasn't just the message, it was also the confirming miracles along with the message.

Now on the very first day of the church, this confirming ministry of healing began. Look at Acts 2:43, “And fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.” Then as we come to Acts 3, the Holy Spirit merely selects one of these miracles as an illustration. And the miracle occurs in verses 1-11 and then Peter's sermon in verses 12-26. You see the miracle gathers the crowd and confirms the testimony that Peter is about to give as being from God.

And so Acts 3 then is a living illustration of Acts 2:43. There are some biblical facts regarding the whole problem of healing that you should know, because there is much confusion about it today. And the word of God has some things specific to say about it. There are certain people who claim to have the gift of healing. And there are also healers that do demonic healing which is supposedly of God.

First of all, the gift of healing in 1 Corinthians 12, was one of the gifts of an apostle. That can be verified throughout the book of Acts. They are the foundation says Paul. An apostle was a person who had seen Jesus Christ, with the exception of Paul who was an apostle in a special sense. So that healing today would not be the apostolic gift of healing. Secondly, Satan and his demons also can heal. And not only that, they can do it in the name of the Jesus Christ. So just because some healer uses the name of Christ, that is no guarantee that God is involved.

Our Lord predicted this in Mark 13:22, “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.” Also Matthew 7:22-23 indicates that some of the healings would even be done in the name of the Lord, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

And the danger of delusion in this area is compounded in these days as we get closer to the coming of Christ, for the Bible teaches us clearly in 2 Thessalonians 2 that in the latter times close to the tribulation there will a great increase in the working of Satan through these delusions. Verse 9 says, “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders.”

During the tribulation, this reaches an apex. Verse 7 says, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.” So we need to be very aware that God is not necessarily involved in everything that comes under His name. The name of Jesus Christ is used in all kinds of ways that have nothing to do with Him. Satan usually masquerades in the church, claiming to be a minister of God, but in reality is controlled by Satan himself.

This is the opposite of simple trust and obedience. The typical healing movement today is based upon a misinterpretation of Isaiah 53:5 which says, “And with his wounds we are healed." And healers have historically understood that to mean that in the atonement there is physical healing for everybody. That is a gross misunderstanding because it has nothing to do with physical healing. Christ did not die for the ills of the body, He died for the sin of the soul.

Much of healing today in the name of Christ falls under some categories, like fraud, such as in the case of this man who was exposed on television. There is also the issue of mass hypnosis where people believe so strongly in an authority figure that they release their emotions and come under the spell of it and they have what we could call an emotional compensation. Their illness is overridden by their emotion to be well and in response to that they supersede the illness with a consciousness of health. But this only works momentarily.

But let us now look at the word of God. What does it say about physical healing? In the New Testament, there is no indication that the apostolic gift of healing was ever exercised in the behalf of the believers. Nowhere in the book of Acts was the gift of healing used to benefit the established church. It was a sign to unbelievers. There was also salvation, but at no point do you find the apostle Paul going back to the established churches and heal the sick people there.

And God punished Jewish exorcists and put fear in their hearts, so many repented. Look at Acts 19:18-20, “Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”

The healing ministry today constantly involves Christian people. Are you saying that God doesn't heal? No, God does heal and God answers prayer. But when we pray, we must pray not commanding to be healed, we must pray if God so desires we be healed. We don't have the right to command. Healing by God is in response to prayer and to his will. And the instruction from the apostle Paul is just to pray for all saints.

Do you know when certain Christians get sick, it is because God is testing them and refining them and equipping them to be what they otherwise could never be. God didn't choose to remove Paul's thorn in the flesh, did He? And in James 5:15 when it talks about sickness it is referring to spiritual weakness.

Nowhere in the Bible is anything said about anointing the sick with the unconditional promise that the prayer of faith shall make them well. But God can still choose to use healing miracles in places in the world where there are no bibles and no knowledge of Christ to prove that what the missionaries are saying is the truth.

So let us get back to Acts 3:1, “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour,” which is 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon. And this was the time of the evening sacrifice and the evening prayers. Verse 2, “And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple.”

He was 40 years old, it tells us later. Josephus tells us that all of the gates in the innermost court were made overlaid with silver and gold. But this one was bigger than all the rest. It was 75 feet high and 60 feet wide and it took 20 men to close it. Verse 3-5, “Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.”

Verse 6, “But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” That is an interesting statement. If I had been a cripple sitting at that gate for 20 years plus, and some guy comes along and said to me: I can't give you any money, but in the name of Jesus rise up and walk, I would have thought he was mocking me, right? At the most what he knew about Jesus Christ was that he had been tried as a blasphemer and executed.

But somehow God by sovereign salvation began to move in his heart. He had no reason to believe Peter and John apart from maybe that he had heard some truth, but he didn't reject them. He heard what they said and he sensed the power of God moving in his life. Jesus never promises anybody material gain. Peter and John are living proof of that. They had nothing. They had poverty but yet also power. And Peter says what I have I give you. It was unexpected.

A man can be going along in his own way thinking all he needs in life is money and a little comfort. Then God reaches into his heart and redeems it and a miracle happens that he never dreamed of. Wasn't that how it was when you met Christ? Something happened far beyond what you ever imagined. Life became fuller and so many things replaced the mundane. So that is how God began a sovereign work.

And this miracle was in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It is as if Peter said because of who Christ is, what He is, by virtue of His character, His authority and His power, rise up and walk. So Peter is saying rise up and walk on behalf of Christ, this is what He wants. They were so sensitive to what the Spirit of God was telling them that they were acting on behalf of Jesus Christ.

And that's what every spirit filled Christian does. And then watch what happened, not only was the miracle unexpected in the name of Jesus Christ, but it was instantaneous. Verse 7-8, “And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.”

Now that is how God heals by creating new legs instantly. In tender love, Peter is available to be used by Christ. And he reaches down and picks him up. Oh there is a great truth in that. The power was Christ's but the hand was Peter's, you see. That is exactly what God wants to do in us. All the ministries that God wants to bring to bear, He wants to bring it through our availability.

Remember we talked about the responsibilities of fellowship? So much to be done in ministry to each other as we are available. Do you know that we don't primarily want your attendance or your money? We want you to do, is to minister, to care and to love and to be sensitive to each other’s needs. That is what God wants and that is what we want. So Peter took his hand and lifted him up while God did the miracle.

Now I believe God heals through medicine and doctors. And I believe God has given us wisdom to perceive and to find and to use these wonderful tools today to heal. But when God decides to do a supernatural miracle, there are always these specific characteristics. They were sovereign, they were supernatural, they were sudden, they healed completely and their purpose was to validate the message.

This guy was full of joy. Imagine forty years of begging and now he is up and jumping around. And the whole temple echoes his joy. Paul says, "Rejoice always and again I say rejoice." This is part of worship. And see, the only real worship going on in that place was that man. All the other worship was just empty ritual.

Verse 9, “And all the people saw him walking and praising God.” So two results, joy to the man who praised God and testimony to the people. Verse 10, “and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.” This was a sign, listen to Isaiah 35:6, "Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, in the day of Messiah."

God used this sign to gather the crowd who were shocked over that miracle and then Peter began to preach. What did Peter say? Come back next week and you will find out. Let us pray.