Readings for today: Nehemiah 9-11, Acts 3:11-4:22
The signs and wonders of God are a marvel to behold. I have seen the sick miraculously healed. I have seen the chains of addiction be loosed in a person’s life. I have seen the demonized set free. I have seen relationships irreparably broken by restored. I have seen the hardest of hearts be softened by the gospel. I have even seen the dead raised with my own two eyes. Each and every one a miracle. Each and every one a divine intervention by Almighty God. It’s easy to be dazzled by such displays of power. It’s easy to get caught up in the joy and excitement of it all. It’s easy to fall into the trap of craving more and more of God’s blessings. More and more of God’s good gifts. More and more of God’s eschatological goodies and miss out on the main point of it all. The Giver is greater than the gift. The Blessed One is more than His blessings. A relationship with God is more precious than all the silver and gold in the world.
In the passage we read today, the people marvel at the healing power that flowed through Peter when he made the lame man walk. The man had been crippled from birth. Everyone knew him because he was carried each day to the Beautiful Gate of the Temple where he would ask for alms. For forty years, he had been in this condition and now the people see him dancing and singing and shouting praises to God. It must been a wonder to behold! Immediately a crowd gathers. They want to know how and why this happened. They want to meet the man who could perform such miracles. But Peter is quick to point them beyond himself. “And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?” (Acts 3:12) Peter knows he’s just God’s instrument. He’s just the conduit through which God has made Himself known. He also knows why God performed the miracle. Signs and wonders are never an end in themselves. They are designed by God to create an opportunity for the preaching of the gospel.
One of the things we get to do when we are over in Africa is interview church planters. We only send them to unreached villages. To people who have never heard the name of Jesus. They are often attacked. Persecuted. Beaten. Imprisoned for their faith. But usually somewhere along the way there is a power encounter. A sign is performed. Someone is healed. The dead are raised. The demonized are set free. And such miracles draw a crowd as you can imagine. That’s the moment the church planter has been praying and waiting for. The gospel is preached. Many come to Christ. A church is planted. It’s amazing to witness.
Friends, the same God who is at work over in Uganda and Ethiopia is at work in America as well. The same God who performs miracles in villages and communities all across Africa is performing miracles in places like Parker and Elizabeth and Denver as well. He is at work in our homes. He is at work in our communities. He is at work in our lives. He is making Himself known through signs and wonders so that we will get the opportunity to share the gospel with those who do not yet believe. God wants to make Himself known for there is salvation in no one else. There is no other name given under heaven by which we might be saved but the name of Jesus.
Readings for tomorrow: Nehemiah 12-13, Acts 4:23-37