Nov 28thDevotion Acts 2:42-47 Beginning To Begin Part 2

Acts 2:42-47 – “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.46  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

“Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.”  It is true that we must be careful to not chase after wonders and signs.  Chasing after them is a good way to be misled.  There are many wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15).  However, does that mean that God, who has throughout His Word with wonders and signs, has stopped?  By no means!  He still does signs and wonders.  God does not change (Numbers 23:19).  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and evermore (Hebrews 13:8).  Yes, God still does healings and miracles…as He decides to do them in His wisdom and knowledge that is infinitely beyond our wisdom and knowledge.  Man does not conjure up God’s miracles, they only come as God decides.  

John 4:43-54 tells the story of a royal official who had a son who was close to death.  The man had heard that Jesus healed people so he went to Jesus and begged Him to heal his son.  Jesus responded back to him “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”  Let’s stop and consider how Jesus meant these words.  Was Jesus chiding the man for asking Jesus to heal his son?  Perhaps one might think that Jesus was not chiding the man, but lamenting the fact that people will not believe unless He performs a sign or wonder?  It seems easy to understand what was in Jesus’s mind, and heart, when He considered the man’s request on behalf of his son, and the man’s own pain at the condition of his son.  Surely Jesus could understand, and maybe even find a comparison between His own mission and the mission of this royal official.  God loves mankind, but mankind, His creation, was perishing both physically and spiritually.  So Jesus, out of love and obedience to the Father, left His home in Heaven to seek, save and heal the lost and broken (Luke 19:10, Psalm 147:3, Psalm 34:17-18).  Jesus, walking as a man, had purposed not to walk in His divine power, but to depend on the Father and on the Holy Spirit to lead and provide for Him.  This human father was coming on behalf of his progeny and seeking to save his son.  This father was depending on God.  In this case the father had heard of Jesus, and most likely all he knew was that Jesus was displaying power and doing works that only someone of God could do.  But the father came on behalf of the child he loved.  So it seems that the words of Jesus were most likely spoken in love, compassion and kindness.  Sure, He would prefer that people would just believe His words because they knew Him and absolutely believed and trusted Him, but men are weak.  Their faith is weak.  We are not in control of our destination or condition.   We can hurt, suffer and at times hope can drain from us.   Jesus, in great compassion, knew the man’s condition.  This royal official had humbled himself and sought out Jesus for the sake of His son. 

Jesus told the man to go back home and that his son would live.  Upon returning home the man found out that as soon as Jesus had told him that his son would live, his son was healed.  This inspired the man, and his family, to believe in Jesus. 

By the above story we see that Jesus understands us, that He has great compassion regarding our needs and that Jesus truly is the answer to all our problems, big and small. 

It is clear that Jesus understood that when He performed miracles people believed and were saved.  Family, people have not changed.  When God performs signs and wonders it gets people’s attention and opens the door for them to believe.  It points the way to God.  Of course, just as all that saw Jesus perform miracles did not believe, it is the same now.  Still, the wonders and signs of God were performed to lead people to God.  God has always revealed Himself to mankind in this way and He still does.  As we walk in the will of God, as we are where He wants us to be when He wants us to be there, miracles still happen.  God still uses people to perform His miracles.  Where people of faith and who have knowledge of God still pray and seek God for healings, signs, and wonders, they still happen.  God, understanding mankind, still uses these things to get the attention of man.  They are indeed signs.  Big billboard signs that God still loves His creation and is still calling for mankind to repent and to come to Him to be loved and saved by Him.  Like the royal official who needed God to save, so are all of us.  It begins with our relationship with God and then we, like the royal official, tell everyone the Good News that they may believe.  God may use any of us, He may desire to use you, to do a mighty miracle or healing that glorifies Him, so that people will be saved.  God is so, so very good and He loves us beyond our understanding.  Praise God who understands us and graciously and tenderly loves us!  Oh yes, praise God!

Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!

Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. 

Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.