In the above focus we see crowds gather around the disciples. These people were afraid to meet formally with the disciples because of the persecution of the believers, but they did want the disciples and fellow believers to touch their lives with powerful healing and miracles. The disciples now imbued by the Holy Spirit performed many signs and wonders among the people. Jesus foretold that the disciples would do many mighty works after He went to heaven. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12) Now we see Peter’s shadow carrying the presence of God. The disciples were truly doing even greater works than Jesus did in his ministry. Because of the Spirit falling on them, all things were possible for them under God’s will. The apostles believed in the God of signs and wonders. They were serving the God who spoke the universe into being. From the very beginning of the scriptures, the God of unimaginable events was the God of the Israelites. In the book of Nehemiah we hear the Levites in their prayer of dedicating the people, affirming the God the Israelites serve. Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. (Nehemiah 9:5-6) Judaism and Christianity are founded on a strong belief in an everlasting Creator, who exists without restraint or boundaries on his power. Jesus revealed this unimaginable power when He quieted the waves and calmed the wind on the Sea of Galilee. His authority over the natural forces brought great fear on his disciples, even though they knew Jesus had divine power. Mighty prophets of old had done many great wonders, but now the disciples were in the presence of a man who functioned as God the Father--nothing was outside of his orbit of authority. Now we see the disciples given this divine power from God, performing signs and wonders, confirming they are messengers of God. These miraculous signs gave them favor with the people, opening their ears to the salvation message. This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (Hebrews 2:3-4) The early church was a community of people who moved under the power of God. We see one of the deacons, Stephen, performing great wonders and signs among the people. (Acts 6:8) The Good News was accompanied by wonders and signs. In Paul’s ministry to the Greeks, healing and casting out demons were necessary components of convincing the Greeks to turn their lives over to the God who had manifested himself to the Jews. At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed. But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to PERFORM signs and wonders. (Acts 14:1-3) Believing in the God of creation meant that you believed in the God of miracles who manifest himself through signs and wonders.
As we see in today’s focus, God is powerfully manifested in his believers. As in the wilderness, the Holy Spirit was with the children of Israel, a pillar of fire at night and a cloud by day reflected that God was leading the Israelites to the Promised Land. We who are now in the flesh, living for only a short time on earth, know that God is leading us to his Promise Land, heaven. At the very beginning, miracles were performed by Jesus' followers, testifying that God was with them and their message of salvation should be heard. The church existed in a dangerous environment, a wilderness environment, constantly needing the presence of the Lord day and night. As with the Israelites in the wilderness, manna was needed, water was needed for survival. In today’s church, the bread of life is broken for us through God's Scriptures, and the water of life is poured through our spiritual existence by the Spirit’s abiding within us. The Spirit manifests Christ in our daily lives. The children of Israel had the abiding Rock with them at all times. He, Christ the Lord, was with the Israelites in their journey. When Moses struck the Rock with anger, he violated what God wanted for him, for he should have spoken to the Rock, the Lord, and asked him for the living water. But his frustration with the Israelites was so great that he violently struck the Rock. The Rock always provided an abundance of water for the large congregation of people and for their animals in the wilderness. They and their animals were sustained in this arid land of sparseness with an abundance of water. Now we see as Peter passes through the crowd an abundance of water flows from him. Even his shadow brought refreshment to the people. The Rock was opened for the people so that they might find healing for their bodies and encouragement for their souls. As believers ventured towards the Promised Land, leaving their captivity behind them, the power of God was present with them. The Holy Spirit has provided his gifts to the church, helping the believers to journey through this wilderness of life successfully. As with the children of Israel, God will provide for the church everything needed. For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen. (Nehemiah 9:21) We know the children of Israel were not always faithful to God. They chose allegiance to the god of Egypt at Mount Sinai, but God never left them, never abandoned them. He always forgave them and blessed them even during their times of waywardness. Thanks to God, we who are venturing through this wilderness, this homeless environment, have the Spirit of God within us. As Peter walked, the Spirit accompanied him. For God had transitioned him from his own efforts of finding God through obeying the law and its regulations to following Jesus who alone in his flesh satisfied the law. Consequently, because of his faith in Jesus and his work, Peter possessed Jesus’ holiness and power, as does the church today in Jesus’ name.
We who are alive in Jesus Christ possess the great power of the living God in us. Jesus Christ has led us out of slavery into the very presence of God. He took on the robe of mankind. He called himself the Son on Man. In this robe of frailty, this robe of finiteness, He possessed the fulness of God within himself. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8) Why humble himself as a man? As a man He walked in the will of God, always pleasing his Father in heaven. He fulfilled the law by being completely faithful to God. He made his flesh conform to the will of God. Therefore, Jesus is holiness, completely without fault. We who are in the flesh are judged by Jesus’ standard of holiness, and we find ourselves falling short of that standard: following God at all times in our life’s journey. But nothing is acceptable to God but complete holiness, eternity demands complete righteousness. Jesus came as the Son of Man, set up a standard that all people must achieve. The disciples are now addressing this conundrum: how can an unholy people meet the standard that God requires of them to enter into a right relationship with him? The people are listening to them because they have seen the miracles the believers in Jesus have performed. But what must they do beyond obeying the law, which they have never been successful in doing completely? The Good News was that Jesus who was resurrected from the dead has made a way for them to be right with God, clothed in holiness. They must believe in Jesus’ work on the cross and his substitutionary work in their lives. By placing their faith IN HIM, they reach the standard God has placed on their lives: the perfection of Jesus. They are introduced to God in the cloak of Jesus' righteousness. This work of God, making a homeless people journeying through the wilderness of life a part of his domain forever is beyond the imagination of sinful men and women. “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.” (Hebrews 2:6-8) We are no longer homeless, just journeying through life and then die. Through Christ and his holiness, we have a permanent home with God, known as children of God. What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? Through and IN CHRIST we have passed through the domain of the angels, where they dwell, into the very presence of the Creator of all things. We are crowned with Jesus' glory, joint-heirs with him forever. Jesus will never abandon us throughout all eternity. He is our ever present High Priest, standing before God in his holiness, making intercession for us forever. This Good News is so glorious that ears had to be opened to receive it. Consequently, the apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people so that they might receive the message of eternal life. Walk in that message today as children of God.
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