Acts: Signs, Wonders, and Miracles, Part 5
In nothing of what I have examined in Parts 1-4 have I meant to look past the eternal miracle of a saved soul—as Christ informed us: “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." He did not make that same representation for healing and deliverance, etc. It doesn’t mean God’s angels don’t rejoice over these other things. But in the end, Jesus’ emphasis should always be our emphasis.
Our condition outside of Christ is tragic:
dead in our transgressions and the uncircumcision of our flesh (Colossians 2:13)
dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1)
Our minds are death and our thoughts in opposition to God. (Romans 8:6-7; Romans 5:10). Our lives cannot please God (Romans 8:8) and ultimately we are under the wrath of God. (see e.g., John 3:36).
That we have been made alive unto God, reconciled unto God, and forgiven—in Christ—is nothing short of miraculous. Not just back then in Acts, but even more so now two thousand years later, after the love of many has grown cold
In that vein, it’s worth seeing the miracle in Acts:
In Chapter 2, after Pentecost, we are in Jerusalem. The day suggests that some number of Jews from a variety of other areas of the known world believed Jesus was the Christ; perhaps some of those who heard God’s praises in their own tongues (i.e., Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs). And Luke tells us: “[T]he Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
In Chapter 4, we learn a Levite from Cyprus (“Joseph . . . whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”) believed in Jesus.
In Acts 8, Luke tells us Samaritans accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ at the initiation of Philip; and so did an Ethiopian. In Acts 9, Saul from Tarsus meets God; and, Ananias is a believer in Damascus, Syria.; and all those who lived in Lydda and Sharon and who saw Aeneas healed turned to the Lord; and many in Joppa who heard of Tabitha’s resurrection believed.
In Chapter 10, we learn of the first Gentile convert—a Roman centurion living in Caeserea (and presumably up to that point, we have just had Jewish believers and converts to Judaism who believed in Jesus). In Acts 11, believers were first called Christians in Antioch.
Luke’s narrative shifts to Paul’s missionary journeys and men and women believe in Cyrpus (Acts 13), Psidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, (Acts 14) and Syria and Cilicia (Acts 15). Lydia from Philippi in Macedonia believes as do others like the jailer and his household. (Acts 17) Many more believe in Jesus as Paul makes his way south from Macedonia to Greece, from Thessalonica, Berea, Athens (Acts 17) to Corinth (Acts 18). We also learn that the Gospel had reached Rome as Aquila and his wife Priscilla were believers from that great city. (Acts 17).
There were disciples in the region Phrygia and Galatia according to Acts 18 and in the important city of Ephesus and in the Roman province of Asia (as in Asia Minor) and in Troas (Acts 20) and in Tyre (Acts 21).
So up to Chapter 21, and Paul’s imminent arrest, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, free and slave from what is now modern day Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, and Ethiopia were made alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. At least these place, but likely more through the other apostles.
These were common people, religious people, irreligious people, craftsmen, tradesmen, politicians, courtiers, soldiers, jailers, merchants, scholars, the uneducated, high ranking and low ranking people. These were people from important cities, cosmopolitan cities, and people from unimportant cities, and of towns and villiages. These were city people, urban people, and country people. People who lived on islands and people who lived on the mainland. People who lived by the sea and people who live inland. People who lived on the highways and byways of life.
In all this, Luke presents to us the Gospel of Jesus Christ as cutting across a huge swath of humanity:
The number of names together were about an hundred and twenty. (Acts 1:21)
There were added unto them about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:41)
And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved (Acts 2:47)
And the number of men was about five thousand (Acts 4:4)
And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women (Acts 5:14)
And the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly (Acts 6:7)
And the churches throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria were multiplied (Acts 9:31)
And the hand of the Lord was upon them: and a great number believed (Acts 11:21)
And much people was added unto the Lord (Acts 11:24)
And a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed (Acts 14:1)
to the end that the then-known world was turned upside down.
Merriam-Webster defines a miracle as “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in the affairs of men,” as sign as “something material or external that stands for or signifies something spiritual,” and a wonder as “a cause of astonishment or admiration.” Healing a lame man or the raising of Tabitha from the dead certainly satisfy all three definitions. But so too the new life in Christ Jesus that we read of in Acts in so many, from so many places, and from so many different walks of life. Something extraordinary has happened that cannot so easily be dismissed.
