Healed In The Dark

Welcome to Verse by Verse. Thank you so much for joining us as we take a look at the book of Acts. We take things nice and slowly as we look and see what God is doing in the big picture of expanding the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. My name is David Humphrey and I'm the pastoral care and missions pastor here at United City Church in Humboldt, Texas. We're excited to be your church family while you're incarcerated, but we're going to be even more excited when you get out and you can come and be a part of our church in person. We love you very much. Please grab your Bible and a journal, perhaps a pen, and be ready to take some notes, and let's learn together through the book of Acts. We are, I'm surrounded by a whole bunch of wonderful people and we are going to zoom right in to Acts chapter 5 verse 12 tonight. We are not going to get very far, I can just tell you right now. I don't have any intention of getting past verse 16 because there's just a lot packed in here and I want us to unpack a question that I hear a lot, that even goes through my mind a lot, and that's related to, okay well there's all these miracles in the book of Acts, what about 2026? Why don't we see the same kind of miracles that we saw in the book of Acts? That's a big question that people have and guys, we're just getting, the further we get into Acts the more miracles we're going to see. So this is a theme that's going to be going over the next year or more as we're going to keep working our way through. So I want you to see this. We're going to start reading in verse 12, but just a reminder, last week we had the breathtaking conversation about Ananias and Sapphira. Literally, I did not mean that to be quite the pun that it was, but God literally took their breath away and made an example of Ananias and Sapphira to show a little bit more about the seriousness. And we talked about the just wrath of God against sin and kind of some bigger pictures to that. So I encourage you to look back at that story. If you were not with us last week, and you can even go back to our YouTube channel, we always have all of those videos available for you. But tonight we're in verse 12 through 16, which is a little bit of a summary section. It's not just one specific miracle story, but let's just

take a look at it because it says, And more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. Wow, guys, I'm glad I heard a wow over here. I think all of us in our hearts were going, wow, now we're not even touching. We're not even saying words. We're just like shadows passing and seeing miracles. So guys, things just continue to escalate in this particular passage. Again, this is not descriptive of just one moment. This is descriptive of the bigger picture of what was going on during this period of time. So this is not the first time we've seen this word signs and wonders. OK, and that's going to be the theme for everything. But before we really go to that theme, I just want us to think for just a quick second about the contrast between verse 11 and verse 12. Think about this the way that Dr. Luke laid all of this out, right? I mean, we're going from they're dropping dead because of their sin and because they're lying to the spirit. And then the very next thing is, now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. Like what a contrast, right? Kind of what a sharp turn we're taking. It's almost as if to me the Holy Spirit inspired him. It's like, wow, that was heavy. Let's let's get a little encouragement, a little encouragement jolt here in the midst of the storyline. And so when we title this signs and wonders. When I say those words, what goes through your mind? Miracles. OK, yeah. All right. How many of you this is just a survey. OK, nobody's going to look down on anybody either way. Is there anyone in the room that's going to look down on anybody? room who has grown up in a Christian tradition where they actually have seen frequent signs and wonders, as in miracles. That's what I mean by signs and wonders in this context. Anybody in the room? Okay, Karen, you've seen that? Yeah. Interesting that one out of probably 50 of us in the room could even report that she's been in a body where that felt kind of normative.

Why do you think that might be? Why do you think, Carol? Okay, okay, I think that's a valid point. Sometimes we're not looking for things or expecting things to happen, okay? That can be one reason. We're going to treat this all in quite a bit over this whole section, but we're going to go through the verse. What do you think, Denise? Okay, well, you just named it, right? And anybody else grew up in a kind of a dead church, you don't have to raise your hand, but you can if you want to, right? Okay, and obviously what we mean by a dead church, if they're preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, the church is not dead, but what we mean is like there just wasn't like life, you know? Like you're not seeing what we see on a regular basis, you know what I mean? Like people being saved, and lives changed, and somebody going from a background that's completely anti-God, and the next thing we know they're full of God's Holy Spirit and sharing from the mountaintop. Like that's normal around here, but it's not in a lot of churches. Carol? Yes, it is. Thank you. Absolutely we need to, and that is a point that is super important that I'm going to make over and over, but let me make it right here. The signs and wonders done here are not the greatest miracles. The fact that somebody could pass through, that Peter's shadow could fall on someone, and they could be healed of whatever bodily infirmity they have, is not a bigger miracle than the miracle of salvation. Because a bodily healing, although that is nice and great, is only going to last so long, okay? But a healing of our hearts and a rebirth lasts forever. So it's very important that we keep these things in check, because sometimes, oh I'm running after signs and wonders and all these sorts of things. Guys, there can be a place for those, and we're going to talk a little bit about that from a biblical context, and there's no doubt about it that we find them at different places in the Bible. However, if we're seeing souls saved, that is the greatest miracle, and the signs here always point to gospel. That's what you're going to find in Acts. Denise, what were you going to say? I think it's Steve Morgan Campbell who said a pure church is a powerful church, and that's what has happened here. God is purifying the church, and you're seeing power. Yes. That's exactly right. Yeah, they're serious about the scripture, and they are believing

and expecting God to do things. So I have no doubt that we could see more miracles if we asked God for them and we believed that He would do them. God is not obligated to respond to our prayers just because God's not waiting on us to say the right words, or you know what I mean, like it's some magic incantation. It's not how God works, okay? He is waiting sometimes on the faith for us to believe, and that's one of the things that we're going to see. That's just a big picture question. If some of you that have been with us through the gospel of Luke, or if you maybe studied it on your own, any of the gospels, you see that there's this dichotomy as it were, right? There's this relationship between the faith of someone receiving and God moving, okay? So we'll see some of that, but I want us to kind of, this little passage tonight is pulling back a little bit to look at this from a bird's eye view. So what I want us to see is a little bit about, number one, did we see signs and wonders in the Old Testament? Who could give an example of a sign and a wonder in the Old Testament? Parting of the Red Sea. I'd say that's a pretty big sign, and if you miss that sign, that's about as big a billboard as God has, right? I mean, I don't know how anybody missed that, right? Yeah, how about? Balaam's donkey, you know, I mean, there are miraculous occurrences. You know, we can talk about, you know, Elijah and the prophets of Baal and, you know, all of there's a lot of miraculous occurrences in the Old Testament. So we see Moses doing all sorts of things, right? I mean, you've got a staff turning into a snake and I'm just a lot of stuff that happened. Of course. Right. So, so guys, it is normative from cover to cover to see supernatural things happen. That could only happen if God was at work, right? There has to be a God doing things because this human cannot accomplish this, right? Or this, and in the case of Balaam's donkey, right? I mean, this donkey cannot talk unless God gives him words. If you haven't read that, just look it up on Google and find Balaam and the donkey. I don't remember where the where the passage is, but guys, that's a really, really interesting story. But what's happening here is it is very apparent that what happened here and starting in verse 12, many signs and wonders were, what's the word, regularly done among the people.

So in other words, this was not like every once in a while in this period of church history, because this was just like every day, just like how, you know, we see baptisms all the time. They were just seeing signs and wonders all the time, right? OK, somebody, oh, what's happening today? Well, the sick are being healed. What's happening today? We don't even know the half. We don't even begin to know. That's why we get these little sections that give a broad view, because guys, there wasn't going to be a book big enough to tell all of the miracle stories, just like the stories of Jesus. We just get some of the high points. Jesus did a lot more than we see in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. OK, so many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of who? The apostles, right? Those who had walked and talked with Jesus live and in the flesh. They were the ones that God was using their hands. OK, I like the verbiage here. They were done by the hands of the apostles. But it's not saying by the power of the apostles, right? The apostles were the instruments carrying the power, right? And the power that Denise spoke of was the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember what Jesus said. You will receive power, right? When the Holy Spirit comes on you and you're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Look, if you would, I was going to do this a little bit later, but I want to go there now at the last of the very last chapter of the Gospel of Mark. The shortest of the Gospel accounts. This is a passage I'm going to start in. So this is Mark, chapter 16. I want to start in verse 14 and go down there to the end. This is Mark's version of the Great Commission story. But look at what he said here afterward. He, that's Jesus, appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table.

He rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart. They had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned. And look at verse 17. And these signs will accompany those who believe in my name. They will cast out demons. They will speak in new tongues. They will pick up serpents with their hands. If they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them. They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover. Then the Lord Jesus, after he'd spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message. How? By accompanying signs. So that's one of the purposes of the signs was to confirm the message. Okay, did every time someone saved in the book of Acts or elsewhere, there was not always a sign, right? There was not always a miracle that happened. Okay, so that's not telling us that, oh, we have to have a miracle sign for someone to believe the gospel. No, not at all. But that was part of the momentum that Jesus was bringing about in the new spreading of this gospel message was we're going to bring about some of that momentum through these sign gifts. Okay, so as you can see, Jesus had full expectation. Well, this is like these are some things you're going to be able to do. And he was not giving an exhaustive list of the things that we're going to do.

He's just giving a well, you know, you'd be able to pick up a snake. No problem. All right. You can drink deadly poison. That's not going to be a big deal. Okay, you're going to be able to heal the sick like this is just normal because you're going to have power. And it's. my power, so why wouldn't you be able to do those things, right? It's just kind of a matter-of-fact conversation right there. So it says here, they're being done, now we're back in Acts 5 again, the many signs and wonders, again look at the word, many, regularly done among the people. There's a lot of words in these five verses that are using the, like, a lot. Many signs and wonders being regularly done by the hands of the apostles. Now it says they were all together in Solomon's portico. Now, do you remember a story about Solomon's portico already in the book of Acts? We were there just a few weeks ago. That's where Peter performed a miracle with the man that couldn't walk. That's exactly right. If you go back just a couple of chapters, I think it was Acts chapter 3, when that first miracle that took place, it was happening there. Solomon's portico was a super public place. So what we can see here in this passage is that these signs and wonders were happening at a well-known religious place. Everybody knew they were happening with regularity. So it's kind of like there were people were regularly gathering, coming and expecting, well, I wonder what the miracle is going to be today. Or maybe they're bringing someone who is sick, as we saw a little bit later in the passage. And I wonder what's going to happen here. Let's hope and pray that they can experience a healing. OK, so the text is telling us that they are doing this in a very public place, and that's important to pay attention to. And then verse 13 is interesting. And it's already been brought up. None of the rest dared join them. Now, the question, of course, is who are the rest that were afraid to join them? There's a lot of different ways that that could be taken. But I'll tell you what makes the most sense to me. I looked at several different commentators. But what makes the most sense to me is that the rest that it's speaking of are other believers that are feeling afraid of the attention that the apostles are getting. Because right here in this,

you know, we're saying, oh, this is great. You know, people are getting healed. But what other attention have the apostles received in the last little bit? Yeah, the wrath of the religious leaders. So so while Peter and some of the other apostles were there just being bold and they're just right out there in the in the broad daylight doing all this. Hey, whatever comes, comes right. Remember Peter's speech? He's like, I'm just going to obey God rather than men. And then you can just judge whatever you're going to do. But I'm just going to be obeying God. So just whatever happens with you, it's going to be fine. But I don't think everybody quite had that level of faith. Dave? You know, one, I happen to agree with what you're saying. These are probably people that weren't ready to be known as believers. Yeah. But the Amplified Bible says none of the rest of the people who were non-believers can see that, too, that they they were seeing what was going on. They they were leaning towards following Christ, but they weren't there yet. Yeah. I think what's happening is the Christ followers are getting bolder and bolder. And so it's kind of separating the sheep from the goats, as it were. Right. So if that be the case, and it could be some of both. Right. So because the text is not absolutely specific here. And this is not a I mean, this is not about salvation. Right. It could go either way. But either one of those ways, whatever's going on, there are some who are getting bolder and bolder and there are others who are shrinking away from that boldness and like, I'm not really sure I want to be seen around what's going on over there. That might get dangerous or I'm a little skeptical or whatever it is that's keeping them out of out of the out of the thing. I think it's quite interesting. Verse 13 is is is really kind of a contrast verse. Right. It's like you've got these who are just all gathering together and then you got these who are kind of scared. Right. You've got the rest, these guys who are afraid of the attention. Then you got the people who are still looking to them and are amazed at their spiritual power. Do you see this? Look at the second half of verse 13. First half, none of the rest there joined them. Now, contrast, but the people held them in high esteem. So you see, like people are starting to go, this is amazing. Yes, Nathan. John about miracles, in chapter 9, where remember Jesus healed the son, put blood on his eyes, and John chapter 9, verse 22, when his parents were talking about being talked to by the leaders of the synagogue, it says that they were afraid to answer because at that time the Jews would be thrown out of the synagogue if they confessed Christ or that it was a miracle. Yeah, that's a great point. That very much parallels the same thing, right? It's beginning to separate, like, we're not sure we want to be associated with them because we may get in some of the same kind of trouble. Who knows what the religious leaders are going to do? Maybe we're going to be ostracized by our friends. It's like some of these teenagers who this weekend got saved, and now they're figuring out, how bold am I going to be, you know what I mean, in my newfound faith? Am I going to stand up as a bold witness or am I going to sort of take my time? So we can just see there's just a lot of different responses to what's going on. But then look at verse 14. More than ever. Guys, those are three really big words. We have seen thousands added at a time in the first four chapters of Acts. And now Luke is so bold as to say more than ever believers were added to the Lord. Then he says it again in a different way. Multitudes of both men and women. Do you think Luke is trying to get his point across loud and clear?

I mean, when you say something again in a different way, you're like, if you missed it the first time, I want you to hear it the second time. This is men, women. You see the words multitudes. You see the words more than ever. That has to mean thousands upon thousands. So you see when you just slip over the scripture and you go quickly through it and you're like, yeah, okay, that's good. More signs and wonders and people in high esteem. And you just miss little things like that, guys. That represents thousands of people being saved. Do you see how fast this movement is multiplying? I mean, it's just like, like rabbits. Okay. It's just absolutely amazing. So we look at verse 15 and then we start to see this interesting phenomenon that we've already alluded to. How was this happening? How was, how was verse 14 happening? More than ever people added to the Lord. Multitudes of both men and women. What's happening is they even carried the sick into the streets, laid them on cots and mats so that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. So we don't know this, but I'm just curious what you think. This is where we can use our holy imagination. Well, one thing I think back is this is the same Peter that denied Christ. But could it be that Peter didn't even know his shadow was healing people here? Yeah, I think so too. I don't come over here and get under my shadow. That ought to do it. I don't have time to touch you. I think it's just the faith itself. That the people, you know, the faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen. That's what they're believing they're seeing just like Jesus Christ. Where the lady touched the hem of the garment. Hey everybody, come touch my garment and you'll get healed. Exactly. Yes, so it was. It was the people's faith. And even in this case it reminds me of the stories of, for instance, remember when they let the man down on a mat through the roof? It was the faith of the friends that God was healing the person on behalf of the friends who showed the faith. Right. So sometimes that's why when we pray, let's say we're praying for somebody to get saved. Right. We're just like God, they don't even have faith right now in you. But would you please give them that gift of faith? Well, God is is blessing your faith. Now, your faith is not enough for them to be saved. They have to have their own faith. But your faith may be the one that gets them to the hearing of the gospel, right? And so I see the very similar effect here in this story that basically it's not that Peter's shadow was all that amazing. It was the faith of the people that are just like, oh, maybe I can just even just get that close. And that's what was enough for them to see this. At least his shadow might fall on some of them.

And it doesn't say explicitly right here. Let's just look at it. The words don't say, it's very much implied, but the words don't say when his shadow fell on them, they were healed. But it's definitely the implication of these words. That's what it's trying to get out for us. Yes, Michael. I was just, in my imagination, I was thinking that Peter's shadow, if there were multitudes of people, six people, I don't think his shadow could have fallen on all of them, but it says all were healed. Yeah, I think whoever got, whoever had that belief, right? That maybe we can just get under there. I think that's the thing. Right, that was the thing. And the thing is, what we're dealing with here also is just like logistically, okay? Guys, it's a lot. If you've ever had to, let's say, have you ever had to be a part of a group where you're trying to manage hundreds or thousands of people to get them to move from point A to point B? So listen, for instance, this weekend, we had a setup right over here and hundreds of students were coming in last Friday night. And they had to have a system, you know what I mean, to keep it organized so it wasn't just mass pandemonium.

So guys, we're starting to get to a point here that this is also popular and the hundreds and maybe thousands of people are coming so that the system itself, right, that we just can't even get to it. But God was making a way because of the people's faith. I find it interesting here in verse 15. I think this is super important. The way that this was happening, of course, their healing ministry was literally physically healing people. But the big picture is that it's drawing attention to the gospel because you see when we were back in this verse 14, which I see as sort of, if you look at the rest of these verses, like if you could just, you can see it there in your Bible, I think verse 14 is the most important verse in this whole section because all of these miracles that were happening were happening and that is why more than ever, believers were added to the Lord. Guys, that's the most important line in these verses, not Peter's shadow was one of the ways that they were having a physical healing. The most important line is that eternal miracles are happening, more added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. So you see, he put the bottom line right there in the middle

and clearly we are seeing the power of the Holy Spirit flowing even more freely through the apostles than we have seen up until now, okay? Remember, this is still a very young church. These apostles are new with this power. They're learning just what kind of power is flowing through them and I don't know if you've thought about that verse in the New Testament and I did not look it up because it just came to me now that reminds us that the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, what does it say about that same power? It is in us. Guys, if it can raise Jesus Christ from the dead, healing somebody's sickness is really small potatoes compared to raising someone from the dead. So I want us to take just a look at this in a little bit different way. I want us to take a look at verse 16 and then I want to sum this up a little bit and maybe if we have time, we'll be able to ask some questions. So it goes on to say, the people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits and they were all healed. Now that's an important verse in the big picture. It looks like, well, at first, okay, well, yeah, we're just kind of hearing more about it.

No, guys, do you see what's happening now? We're spreading out of Jerusalem. Do you remember how we said there's a verse in the beginning of the book of Acts that is the framework that's the outline for the rest of the book? Who remembers? Remembers what that verse is. Yeah, yeah, somebody read that. Acts 1 8, somebody said. Somebody read it. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. OK, so guys, the rest of this book, you're just going to see that. That's the outline. So you see what's happened. We started in Jerusalem. I mean, like Solomon's portico, you don't get more Jerusalem than there. Like that's like, you know, like ground zero right there in the middle of things. And now, as you see how it's spreading out, Luke's going to start chronicling how it's spread out just outside of Jerusalem and the word is getting out. Guys, remember, they did not have the Internet. OK, this is all word of mouth. Nobody is texting out or tweeting out the information, you know, to a global audience. OK, this is happening and it is spreading like wildfire. So you can see a couple of groups of people that they were bringing. I want you to notice that verse 16, they were bringing the sick. And then who else?

OK, what is afflicted with unclean spirits? Now we're dealing with demons. OK, guess what? We're going to deal with demons a lot. For the rest of the book of Acts, we're just going to sort of touch on this right here because we've only got a few more minutes. But guys, demons do involve themselves. If you haven't figured this out by now with people. With the image bearers of God, demons act in opposition to the plan of almighty God. OK, demons were involved in the book of Acts. Demons are still involved in 2026. OK, there's a lot of people that have a lot of different opinions and thoughts and even theological beliefs about demons. We don't generally I've grown up in Baptist churches most of my life. I didn't really learn a lot about demons. I'll be honest with you. I had never until I was a I was much older into my adulthood. I had never seen an exorcism. But yes, I have been present praying for and experiencing a person who is demonized. That's another word that we can use. Experience freedom in the name of Jesus Christ from demonic oppression or possession. I'm going to give you two quick, quick, quick things. And we're not we're going to kind of touch on it. And I'm going to then you're going to I'm just going to get you thinking. You're going to be like, what in the world? We're not going to talk much about it because I want to finish out these verses.

But guys, I see as I understand what the Bible teaches, two different ways in which demons in the big categories influence God's image bearers, humanity, that is from the inside. And from the outside. From the outside. I would call that demonic oppression. OK, that would be, for instance, a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit of God. So if you have received Jesus Christ as your personal savior. The Holy Spirit, we've talked about this over and over, lives and like dwells in your being. OK, and you cannot be possessed. By a demon, you cannot. You can be oppressed. By a demon. OK, that means demonic influences can come to you from the outside. So that's demonic oppression. And then there is demonic possession. And possession is demonic influence from the inside. That is just like the Holy Spirit can come and and has come and set up residence in my life. Demon or demons or multitudes of demons, lots of demons we would even say. Can set up residence inside someone, and that is demonic possession. Now, I know you're thinking, could you teach some more on that? And another night we will. But I'm just wanting you to see, I just want you to notice that they're not only bringing people who've got an appendix problem or a broken foot or a lame leg. They are also bringing people who are afflicted with unclean spirits.

OK, yes, you're saying that the ones with the demonic possession in words, those are not. A believer in Jesus Christ who has the Holy Spirit of God cannot be. possessed by a demon. There is no fellowship, light with darkness. They cannot, this house is occupied. Okay? But, we can be oppressed from the outside. And so there's a lot more to unpack with that that we're not gonna unpack tonight because I want us to pull back and then I wanna give just a couple quick comments from an article that I read this morning that was just fascinating to me. So, bird's eye view of these verses 12 through 16. Lots of healings through the apostles happening in a variety of ways. We know Peter is named, but that doesn't mean that everything that's been done is being done by Peter. Okay? We see it at the very first sentence here. By the hands of the apostles, not by the hand of the apostle. Okay? So, all the apostles were being involved in this. This was happening in very public places. That's obvious. The people were in awe. Some of them got scared, intimidated,

not sure what to do. People were coming in from surrounding towns. The net effect, the most important effect of the miracles is verse 14. More people believing in the Lord, multitudes of men, multitudes of women. That's the most important net effect of the miracles, not the miracles themselves. Okay? So, we're not downplaying miracles as amazing. We're just saying that the greatest miracle, as you said, Carol, is the miracle of salvation. That's the greatest miracle of all. So, how does all this relate to us today? All right. So, I want to give an answer to the question. I read some of John Piper's writings, and he was asked a question and gave a really succinct, easy answer, and I'm gonna summarize it for you. He was asked the question, why don't we see more miracles today? I think that's a valid question, and I think that's a really good question. So, these are the three ways that he answered that, and I thought this was really good. Psalm 77, verse 11. Okay? Turn, if you would, to Psalm 77, verse 11, and when somebody gets there,

I just would invite you to read that nice and loud for us. Psalm 77, verse 11. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember by wonders of others. Okay. So, Psalms, as we know, in the historical timeline of the Bible, it's kind of midway. Some of the Psalms were written like during first and second Kings and first and second Samuel, some of that. But that's Old Testament material, okay? The Psalms didn't come after the Gospels. They came long before the Son of God made flesh showed up on the scene. And he is saying, the psalmist says, I will remember your deeds of old. What do you think the deeds of old he might be talking about? Yeah, like the miracles, like the amazing things that you did. I'm remembering those. And he's speaking in the idea of, I remember, like I heard about all that stuff you did way back when. So I wanna read this quote to you from the article that I found helpful. But John Piper said this, there were fewer miracles in the Bible than you probably think.

And there are more miracles today than you probably know. And there's a good biblical reason for why there would be a certain kind of prevalence of miracles in the Bible that is different from today, okay? So Psalm 77, 11, the reason he brought that up was from the perspective of the psalmist, he is speaking of, I remember hearing about all those amazing things you did way back then. Guys, as far as we know, I think we would have biblical record of it. There was one time that the Lord parted the sea in the way that he did on that day, okay? Everything that happened in the Old Testament that was miraculous was not every day of the story of the Old Testament. There were big and miraculous things that God did, but we tend to think, oh, well, maybe, I guess it was just like everyday occurrence. Every day, everybody was experiencing miracles. That's not what the historical record shows. There were probably more than, there certainly were more than are listed in the Bible, but they also, it's not like every single day since the beginning, there were miracles upon miracles upon miracles of all these, of this magnitude. So these things were not recorded as if they were happening every single day. Most of the miracles in the Bible, most, not all, sprung up around certain periods of time around some of the saints that we know, right?

We've already talked about Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and others. That doesn't mean that there were not other little miracles that sort of popped up here and there, but miracles weren't just an everyday occurrence. occurrence on every page of the Old Testament, okay? So that's to the point that he's not putting down and saying there were not miracles in the Bible. For sure, there were. But it wasn't as every day as we might get in our minds thinking, okay? So that's why the psalmist said, I remember your deeds of old. He's thinking, I haven't really seen a miracle recently, perhaps. But I remember hearing about those miracles that you did, okay? The Bible has lots of miracles. A lot of times, though, they are scattered along. Now, Jesus definitely did amazing miracles. So did his followers in Acts. And what have we said was the purpose of the miracles? They were to point to the gospel, okay? The apostles did these, but did you also notice, or maybe we haven't really even gotten there, that the apostles also traveled with a doctor? Why did they travel with a doctor if they're doing miracles? Why would you need a doctor with you if you've got wonder-working power

flowing through your veins every second of the day? Guys, because miracles were not every second of every day was not a miracle flowing through Peter. They also experienced sickness and shipwrecks and all sorts of things that didn't go right. So we can sometimes, it's almost like we kind of over-glorify what happened in the book of Acts, like every single thing was a miracle and everybody got saved. No, guys, we see some of these highlights. And what we can see is there were amazing things that took place. But the kingdom in Jesus' time and in the book of Acts had broken into the world. Remember, Jesus has come. The kingdom is coming, but guys, we're not yet in the season where there'll even be no need for miracles anymore, okay? So there can be a little bit more sparse, perhaps, than you might think. And then the other point that he made is guys, there are still miracles happening today. We see little miracles here and there, perhaps. I told you guys a story of two weeks ago during the fast. I truly believe when I prayed for Linda Young when she was in the hospital and during my prayer, the nurse gave record that during my prayer, her blood pressure, her heart rate went from 150 to 70 over that little 60 second time. And the nurse was like, what just happened?

She said, I heard that guy in there praying. So guys, I say that's a miracle. I mean, I'm not trying to give any glory to me, I give all glory to God. But guys, there still are miracles happening. And we see the miracles of salvation. We do see physical miracles. God can do that. And do we need to have more faith that God could do that? Absolutely, we do. Yes, we do. Do we need to ask God to do things that we're afraid of asking? Why are we sometimes afraid to ask? Because we don't think he's gonna do it. And why would we ask and be embarrassed if he doesn't, right? So guys, we need to sort of dip our toe in the pool here and not be afraid to have faith to ask God to do things. But we also need to have a good view of miracles. It's not that there was all these miracles back in and there's nothing going on now. No guys, the scripture has a reason why God included every single miracle that he did. But every day for every miracle you see during the time of Jesus and during the book of Acts, there's a whole lot of potential miracles that get passed right over. Guys, Jesus didn't heal everybody. Peter didn't heal everybody that could be healed. That's exactly right.

There was the faith element. There's so many things. So that was just a helpful article. If you happen to want the link to that, you can look it up or you can just literally ask, you can type in, why do we see so few miracles today? And John Piper, and I promise you'll pull it up. I found it to be interesting. But it's 6.01, which means it's time for us to go home. And some of us are gonna get on to other groups tonight. Thank you for being such good, engaging listeners. I'm gonna pray for us and we'll be done tonight. Father, thank you so much for the miracle of the fact that we can even just hear your word. Thank you, God, that your word, you made sure that it was spoken, God, that it was written, that it's been carried on through all these centuries so that we could sit here on a night in February in 2026 and be amazed at what you did on these days. And God, we also want to be amazed at what you're doing in this day, God, and give us the faith to ask for miracles, God, to ask you to do things that are. bigger than us. And God, let us see you do those things for your glory and to point people to the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you guys so much for being here. Thanks again for joining us, verse by verse through the book of Acts.

I hope that you have learned a lot. More importantly, I hope that you'll apply these things to your life this week. Share it with a friend. Great thing for you to just have some discussion with the other people around you, share the things that God is doing in your life. Again, remember the Bible is a book about God, far more than it is a book about us. So let's learn about him. Let's grow to love him more and more. Here at United City, this is not the only thing that we have on the Pando app. We would love for you to follow some of our other content, watch some of our worship services, along with music and the messages, as well as podcasts. We've got a lot of great content and we would love for you to follow that. Also, if you would like to be in touch with us here at United City, the best way to do that is by writing us a letter. You can address that to Prison Ministry at United City Church, 19901 Townsend Boulevard, Humble, Texas, 77338. We'll read that, we'll pray for you, and somebody will write you back. God bless you, and we'll see you in the word.