Matthew 8:14-17 When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.
The power of God, the Holy Spirit, resides in Jesus Christ. In this account we do not see Peter’s mother-in-law acting in faith. Of course, she may or may not have been a strong believer in Jesus. Regardless, Jesus touched her hand and the fever left her. In the grave, Lazarus could not expound faith, for his brain waves were dead; consequently, Jesus’ power had to raise him from the grave and death. Jesus himself was raised by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave power to his disciples when He sent them out: The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” (Luke 10:17) Jesus sent out these followers to harvest the lost. They came back from their evangelistic ministry praising God, rejoicing in a power so strong that the demons obeyed their commands. The New Testament is full of the works of people possessing the Power of the Holy Spirit. As in Egypt under Pharaoh’s authority, Moses needed miracles to bring light to an oppressive, evil environment and to rescue people from the hands of Pharaoh. No other power but God’s would cause the Satan of that kingdom to release God’s chosen people. The Israelites, immersed in the godless environment of Egypt, had amalgamated with the environment of death. When they first heard Moses talk of deliverance, they could not believe in his mission. They wanted Moses to disappear from their lives, for he caused a greater burden by Pharaoh’s demands. But mighty miracles gradually convinced them that the God of creation was determined to release them from slavery. To understand the possibility of a new way of living, they needed God’s intervention in their lives. In the New Testament, people also had to understand that a new way of living was coming through the acts of God. The Gospel of John addresses this reality. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1:10-13) As with Moses, his own rejected his mission. The Jews did not want to receive Jesus as the Messiah; therefore, Jesus performed mighty miracles to prove He was divine and could deliver them from slavery to sin. The gospels give an account of Jesus’ miracles, but in Acts we see the apostles fulfilling the mission of breaking through the devil’s domain, delivering Jews and Gentiles to the Promised Land of salvation. The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed. (Acts 5:12-16) As with the Israelites, people were afraid to join this movement of the Messiah. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. The powerful and elite of the Jewish kingdom opposed this nascent church. If people joined the followers of Jesus, they were cast out of the synagogues, disowned by families, lost their livelihood and their inheritances. As hated outcasts throughout Israel, miracles performed by the followers of Jesus would make the world understand that a new kingdom had come to earth, one that pays great dividends: eternal life and fellowship with the Creator God. The power of the Holy Spirit was so great, the touch of Peter’s shadow was said to change lives. Crowds of people, afraid to join the disciples openly, brought their sick and tormented and they were healed. These scenes repeat the miraculous intervention of God in the land of Egypt with miracles too great not to believe.
In the acts of the apostles we see ordinary men performing miraculous deeds. We see people who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ walking through lands, healing people and driving our demons. The darkness of the world had to give way to the light in these human beings. Their prayers were powerful, their teaching convincing, but they were still just ordinary men, people who live and die like all other flesh, but God’s power was within them, divinity was in their words. James encourages believers to know that God is in their lives, and they should never just think of themselves as ordinary. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. (James 5:16-18) People who possess the Holy Spirit within them are not just ordinary people walking through this world in a natural way. No, they are people who have a dynamo of power within them known as the Holy Spirit. They are new creatures, baptized or immersed in the Power of God. As with Peter, we see Paul performing miraculous acts as he moved into lands of great darkness. He was bringing light and life into a dark and dead world. He ministered to people who did not know God at all, people who served the demons of this world. They lived lives of hopelessness, believing their idols would make their lives better, but instead, they were engrossed in depraved behaviors, sexual exploitation and worse. So Paul had to bring miracles to them, not just words to show them God was alive. His actions and lifestyle had to bring power and purity to them. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. (Acts 19:11-12) As the Gentiles observed Paul’s lifestyle, purity, and his power with God, the light began to dawn in their lives of darkness. They too would be rejected by their communities, even killed, definitely persecuted; but the Power of God manifested through Paul’s words and actions brought them to the land of the living: the Promised Land, sitting with Christ at the right hand of God. This Good News was met with joy by those who accepted it within their lives, but to those who rejected it, hatred filled their lives. Even though Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit and even though he demonstrated great power to the people, he was persecuted, tortured, beaten, stoned, jailed and put in chains. As with Christ, he and all followers of the Messiah were persecuted in this wilderness experience. Paul and all who walked in faith would face the threat of death every day of their lives.
People with such power in their lives, people who could perform marvelous miracles, how could they be so vulnerable to the intentions of the wicked? God’s purpose is not to rescue people from the vulnerabilities of life but to bring them into a new life, an eternal life. What is common to all the believers in the New Testament is that they invaded the land of darkness. As Moses, they invaded the territory of the Evil One. Their lives existed daily in this territory, threatened by the unredeemed, the filthy, the liars of this world. Jesus lived with the unbelieving Jews who lied about his life. The elite controlled the Jewish society; they wanted to maintain their authority. To stay in their position of power, they had to get rid of this man Jesus. He was turning the world upside down, challenging the status quo. Fear gripped the leaders, for if Jesus’ teachings took hold, they would lose their status for sure. So they killed Jesus. The apostles also faced the same opposing forces: the leaders of every community. When John’s disciples came to Jesus to ask him if He were the Messiah, Jesus tells them to go back and tell John what they had seen and heard. Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. (Luke 7:22) Probably everything they said about Jesus would have been accepted by the rulers except for the last item: the good news is proclaimed to the poor. For the poor to accept the good news would mean that they had a supreme authority over them that supersedes the authority of the rulers and elite of this world. The poor would no longer have to accept the vision of the elite about the character of their lives. Jesus’ teachings brought them into a new kingdom, God’s Kingdom. In that kingdom, they were free, children of God, not just servants of this world’s organization. As sure as the Israelites were free from Pharaoh and his authority, the poor were free from the way the world is run. They would be good citizens, but by serving God not men. To set people free, miracles and wonders are needed. Even today, when people of the living Lord invade the dark domains of the world, miraculous wonders are needed. People of faith must pray, beseeching God for intervention in people’s lives. Healing and wonders are not for Christians only, they are signs for an unbelieving world. When we seek healing and wonders only for our benefit, we are seeking amiss. We know that because people of God face great persecution and death in this world. The Good News is despised by the devil. The vissitudes of life fall on everyone. Missionaries die—Christians suffer as all other people do. But we as Christians around this breakfast table are the light of the world; we bring the Good News regardless of the cost to us. We do not separate ourselves from the cost of living in a wilderness. Instead, we delve into the midst of it, bringing hope and light to a dead and dying world. Jesus went over to a very sick woman and touched her hand. How many of us are willing to do likewise out of love? Or are we consumed with our own lives with no time to pray, no power to release to others, feckless in our lives? We live in a dark world; the darkness is all around us. Do we live as children of light with the dynamo of the Spirit evident in what we say or do or are we without faith, hopelessly immersed into the culture of the world? Are we really serious with God and his intentions for this world? Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can touch people today.
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