MIRACLES AND SIGNS:
These Things Were ‘Glued’ to the Apostles!
Miracles And Signs:
These Things Were Glued to the Apostles!
JAN LILLEBY
“What do you mean ‘glued’?
As proven throughout the Acts history, we cannot find any ‘private’ miracles or healings!
There has to be a logical reason why Luke, the writer of Acts, never described miracles, signs and healings, unless it was an apostle involved in it. God had given the apostles of Christ these fabulous powers by the Holy Spirit – that they could show forth signs and wonders to Israel and the Jews. First He gave this to the twelve apostles to Israel, and 8-9 years later on, He chose Paul to be His apostle, sending him to the Jews abroad, mostly the eastern parts of the Roman Empire.
I have mentioned these Bible truths in some of my writings lately, but here I shall put a full focus on that sole fact: Miracles were never granted anyone, unless an apostle – or in two instances someone who were closely ministering with one – I am thinking of the two deacons Stephen and Philip told in Acts 7 and 8.
Seen with our present modern Christian eyes: Miracles will NOT happen (healings and signs) unless there are genuine elected apostles of Christ present …in the NOW.
And I can assure you all - there are none of these apostles in our time whatsoever.
Many liars do call themselves for ‘Apostle’ or ‘Prophet’, saying they were told by God to do this and do that, etcetera. The world is full of such deceivers. “Oh, I had a vision, and God showed me this, and He showed me that!!” And gullible believers follow these deceivers, and does not care to check out what the Bible says.
And to say it for the ‘umpteenth time’: There has not been any genuine apostle of Christ on earth since He called Paul, Acts 9:15. God explicitly sent out just ONE single apostle to us Gentiles, Paul.
PHILIP AND STEPHEN, THE TWO DEACONS
GOING WITH SIGNS AND WONDERS
These two exceptions…ministers who performed miracles, and yet they were not apostles. The two were deacons handpicked to assure the believers in Jerusalem got fairly treated regarding aid of food and money, etcetera. The seven deacons should see to it that no one was forgotten and lacking aid.
Acts 6:3-6, NASB,
3 "Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.
4 "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."
5 The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.
6 And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them.”
I underlined Stephen and Philip. Do you see what is NOT there?
If not, I can tell you right away: We cannot find any testimony from Luke, saying that Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas all were performing miracles and wonders and such! Luke firstly put focus upon Stephen…a man FULL OF FAITH AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT….leaving out also Philip in this case.
The apostles laid their hands on them, after having prayed first, - which anticipates a certain move of the Spirit, since Stephen shortly thereafter is found performing miracles as he preached Christ.
Acts 6:8-10, NASB,
“8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
9 But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen.
10 But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.”
Stephen was authorized by God by His Holy Spirit, by the laying on of hands of the apostles (I take it for granted that Peter was among them of course) – and this resulted in the power of healings and miracles following Stephen. But please do not over read this, Stephen worked WITH the apostles, and thus he had this power present as he preached among the people in Jerusalem!
So, even if the Bible shows us that also two disciples (made deacons) could perform healings and miracles, it happened in the narrative shown: Apostles of Christ were present and authorized these ministers by transferring the power of the Spirit by the laying on of hands.
It was the Holy Spirit’s own decision to anoint in particular the two mentioned, Stephen firstly, and so also Philip,
Acts 8:4-8, NASB,
“4 Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them.
6 The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing.
7 For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed.
8 So there was much rejoicing in that city.”
Philip – by the power of the Holy Spirit and signs and wonders, shook Samaria. He cast out demons and he healed the lame (v. 7).
And still, in spite of these two ministers Stephen and Philip, it seem clear to us all that it was the apostles who had the very lead and the signs always following them, as we shall now see.
PETER AND THE ELEVEN FOLLOWED BY
SIGNS AND WONDERS
Acts 5 is a very illustrative story on signs and wonders. It is reported so very truthful, that these miracles were done BY THE HANDS OF THE APOSTLES. Acts 5:12-16, NASB,
“12 At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon's portico.
13 But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem.
14 And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number,
15 to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them.
16 Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.”
It pleased the Spirit not only to use the ‘hands of the apostles’ working signs and wonders, but He upped the score: Even the very shadow of Peter’s body, as he passed many sick along the streets, healed the sick that his shadow fell upon! Peter was simply in the errand to go up to the temple, but God used this situation to have the sick people healed. Totally wild scenes were seen as sick and handicapped patients just jumped out of their stretchers, throwing their eventual crutches and what not. They were ALL instantly healed (v. 16).
It even looks to me, reading Acts, that there were no organized ‘healing-campaigns’ or any advertising urging people to come on a certain evening at a certain address, so God could heal them/save them.
It seems to me that ALL miracles came from the Spirit all of a sudden, leaving no particular time to prepare for any meeting and such. It was spontaneous miracles, not planned ones!
Same was true in Acts 3:1-10, and Peter healing the lame beggar near the gate of the temple. It was all a spontaneous action of the Spirit, urging Peter to act as he did.
Notice: You don’t find that it was one of the many and more anonymous members of the congregation at Jerusalem who healed the beggar. It was an APOSTLE OF CHRIST, Peter. The miracle-power was ‘glued’ to the apostles, not to members anywhere in the congregation. There never was any ‘The whole church go work miracles and heal the sick’ – like we find in certain Charismatic groups in our time. The power was on the apostles. End of discussion.
In Acts we can find ONLY ONE EXAMPLE that a believer prayed for the sick: Acts 28:8, NASB,
« And it happened that the father of Publius was lying in bed afflicted with recurrent fever and dysentery; and Paul went in to see him and after he had prayed, he laid his hands on him and healed him.”
We simply do not find any other example in the entire Book of Acts, where anyone was ‘praying for the sick’.
They rather just went right to it, and healed the sick straight forwardly and without any special preparations. That was how the Holy Spirit made the apostles work in ministry.
Peter in Acts 3 before the beggar….of silver and gold I have none, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus, the Nazarene,- walk!
No mumbo-jumbo and praying and laboring. Just a plain powerful miracle brought about by one of Christ’s apostles, Peter.
PAUL AND MIRACLES AND SIGNS
Like as with Peter and the eleven, so also with Paul. Spontaneous miracles appeared several times in his ministry abroad. At Iconium it is reported in Acts 14:3, much like Acts 5 told above,
“Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands.”
The expression “their hands” – plural, point to the fact that Paul AND some of his co-workers had the power of the Spirit to heal the sick. Paul was the apostle, but as seen with the ones at Jerusalem, the power could be transferred by laying on of hands so that their fellow ministers also could heal. Among whom we find Barnabas of course.
There we have it again: Miracle-signs were ‘glued’ to the apostles, actually to their HANDS.
We have the lame beggar at Lystra, before Paul - Acts 14:8-11, NASB,
“8 At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother's womb, who had never walked.
9 This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well,
10 said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And he leaped up and began to walk.
11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us."
Let’s end the article by showing Paul in Acts 19, healing the sick and casting out demons.
Acts 19:11-20, NASB,
“11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,
12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.
13 But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches."
14 Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.
15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?"
16 And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
17 This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified.
18 Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.
19 And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty * thousand pieces of silver.
20 So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.”
It happened BY THE HANDS OF PAUL it says. Miracles was ‘glued’ to him. And writing to the Corinthians he said, ..( 2 Cor. 12:12) -
“The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.”
Mark 16:20, NASB, say firmly,
“And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed…”
The reference to signs, points to verses 17 and 18….
"These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;
they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
None of these marvelous miraculous things are available to Christian believers in our time. It worked only during the time of Acts, and these signs were ‘glued’ to the apostles, for sure.
God has no apostles sent out in our time. Paul was definitely the final one!
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