29And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 31And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Our church has wrestle these past 2 years on whether we should "pursue" signs and wonders. We've been on that pursuit before, without nary any wisdom or humility, or even purpose for pursuing such things other than it was exciting to see God tangibly. But in Acts the community had a very good reason to ask for such signs. To them it wasn't just about seeing more of God, it wasn't even about strengthening each other and blessing the church, it was about backing the message of Jesus' sovereign grace. The disciples have always recgonized Jesus' grace as real and tangible, as Matthew saw him doing in Matthew 8:16-17
16That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases."
Matthew attributed more than spiritual deliverance to the famed words in Isaiah 53. This isn't to say we are to dazzle people to salvation, v29 says these signs and wonders happen while people speak God's Word with all boldness. And boldness, as we saw with Peter and the council (and pretty much all of Peter's sermons up to that point), included saying not so "loving" things. But some of us, myself included, closed our hearts to the desire of God showing up. For me it was because I're scared of the mistakes that I had made in pursuing these things before. A lot of us are opened to the idea of proclaiming God's Word. But this passage shows us that the first church was eager to not just to explain the kingdom of God to people, but to see it happen, to see salvation happen.
14But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.
There's just no trash talking when God actually happens! No arguments, no academics, just jaw dropping awe. I believe God wants to back us when we say that His grace is awesome. God responds to their prayers by shaking the place up. God gave them exactly what they asked for, as if to say, "yes, I have heard you, and I will be there just like I'm here now!", and healings signs and miracles continue to happen in Acts. God responded to people desiring to proclaim his kingdom as a real thing, not just in the next life, but here and now.
No comments:
Post a Comment