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Chapter Three

Healing in the Age of the Apostles

Now many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles…. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.

— Acts 5:12–14

Before his ascension to heaven, Jesus gave his apostles a solemn commission to continue his work on earth. They must have been eager to embark on this mission. However, there was one important thing that had to occur before they could begin. Jesus instructed them, “Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The same charge is repeated in Acts: “He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father,” namely, that they would be “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4–5). Only by being filled with the Holy Spirit, as Jesus was at his own baptism, would they have the divine power they needed to be his witnesses to all nations.

Luke records that after giving this instruction, Jesus “was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes …” (Acts 1:9–10). A cloud had great significance for the people of Israel. In the time of the exodus, the cloud was the visible sign of God’s presence in the midst of his people (Exod 40:34–38). Moses had gone up Mount Sinai, enveloped in a cloud, and brought down the gift of the Torah. So now Jesus goes up to heaven in a cloud and will bring down an infinitely greater gift, the Holy Spirit (Exod 19:9; Acts 2:33).

The two men in white robes are also a clue to what is happening. When was Jesus last seen in a cloud? At his transfiguration. The two men with him then were Moses and Elijah (Luke 9:28–35).

Moses, the great leader of Israel, had a young assistant named Joshua who spent years at his side, being formed by him and watching him do miracles as he led Israel out of slavery into freedom. Before Moses died he imparted his spirit to Joshua to succeed him in leadership (Deut 34:9). Joshua went on to do what he had seen Moses do: he led the Israelites across water on dry ground (Josh 3), a replay of the crossing of the Red Sea, and went on to lead them to victory in battle against their enemies.

Elijah too had a disciple, Elisha, who spent years with him, being formed by him and watching him prophesy, do signs and wonders, and call Israel to conversion. On the day Elijah was about to be taken up to heaven, he said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you” (2 Kgs 2:9). Elisha’s response was bold: he begged for a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit, i.e., his supernatural gifting for prophecy, signs and wonders. In biblical tradition, a firstborn son received a double portion of the inheritance. Elisha was in effect asking to be Elijah’s firstborn, to be just like him. Elijah answered, “You have asked something that is not easy. Still, if you see me taken up from you, your wish will be granted; otherwise not.” As he was taken up in a flaming chariot, Elisha did indeed see him — the sign that his desire was granted. And he immediately did just what he had seen his master do: striking the water of the Jordan with Elijah’s mantle, he crossed over on dry ground (2 Kgs 2:14). He went on to perform many healings and miracles, calling Israel to conversion just as Elijah had done.

This biblical background helps us understand the gift that Jesus imparts to his apostles and to the whole Church. As he ascends into heaven, they see him — the sign that they will indeed receive a “double portion” of his Holy Spirit, empowering them to continue his mission. That promise is fulfilled at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit falls on the hundred and twenty disciples gathered in the upper room, with the rush of a mighty wind and “tongues as of fire” (Acts 2:1–4). Like Joshua and Elisha, Jesus’ followers then go on to do just what they had seen their Master do: proclaim the good news with signs and wonders in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Lame Man at the Beautiful Gate

The first event after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, as Luke reports it, is the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple (Acts 3). It is a dramatic demonstration of the power of the risen Jesus now at work in his disciples.

Peter and John were on their way into the temple at three o’ clock, the traditional hour of the evening sacrifice. Few knew it was an hour now made sacred by Christ’s death on the cross (Luke 23:44). The scene was probably similar to that of a city church today at the time just before Sunday Mass — a stream of worshipers moving toward the doors, a panhandler or two on the steps, noise, bustle, and distraction. The crippled man hardly glanced at Peter and John among the jostling crowd as he begged for a handout.

But Peter, newly filled with the Holy Spirit, must have been prompted by the Spirit to know that this was to be no ordinary encounter. He “gazed intently” at the man and said to him, “Look at us,” and the man “fixed his attention on them” (3:4–5). What was important about this intense look? On a natural level, it engaged the man’s full attention, establishing a relationship between him and the two apostles.

But Luke hints at more. The Greek verb for “gaze intently” is atenizo. It means “to keep one’s eyes fixed on,” and is used in Acts especially in supernatural contexts: the apostles gazing into heaven at Jesus’ ascension (1:10); the Jewish leaders gazing at Stephen as his face became like that of an angel (6:15); Stephen gazing into heaven (7:55); Cornelius gazing at an angel (10:4); Peter gazing at a heavenly vision (11:6). Strikingly, the word appears in a miracle story that closely parallels this one: Paul’s healing of a lame man at Lystra. “Paul, gazing intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, ‘Stand upright on your feet.’ And he sprang up and walked” (14:9–10). Perhaps Luke wants to convey that the apostles’ gaze allowed the lame man to see their faith, which awakened his own. The miracle-producing power of the Holy Spirit can be imparted simply through a gaze of faith.

The first part of Peter’s response, “I’m broke,” shows his faithfulness to Jesus’ mission instructions: “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money” (Luke 9:3). On a human level, Peter had nothing to alleviate the man’s suffering, no capacity to help at all. Peter, the once-prosperous fisherman and now highest-ranking leader of the Church Jesus founded, is himself one of the poor. Miraculous healings take place most often by the poor and among the poor — those who have no access to the medical care that money and insurance can provide, no recourse but God alone.

Then Peter committed an act of astounding faith. In the midst of a crowd of people he said aloud, “I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (3:6). As if that were not enough, he grasped the crippled man’s hand and raised him up. There is no turning back from such an act. Either there will be a miracle or one will appear a complete fool. Peter had such confidence that the Lord would come through for him that he was willing to put his reputation on the line.

The legs of the man, who was more than forty years old and lame from birth (3:2; 4:22), would have been not only congenitally disabled but atrophied from a lifetime of disuse. It is not surprising that he needed a boost to be able to respond to Peter’s shocking command. But significantly, it was not before but after he stood up that “his feet and ankles were made strong.” He had to do the impossible (with Peter’s help), before the impossible became possible. As often happened in the ministry of Jesus, the act of faith opened the way for the miracle.

Luke describes the thrilling scene that ensued. “Leaping up he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him” (3:8–10). Tears must have flowed as people watched this man, whom they had known as a helpless cripple, now beside himself with joy. There must have been shouts of praise and thanksgiving to God. Perhaps some remembered God’s promise about the messianic age to come: “then shall the lame man leap like a stag” (Isa 35:6).

Up to this point in Acts 3 Luke has portrayed numerous signs of the devotion of God’s chosen people.³⁶ Peter and John, like many other Jews, were entering the temple to worship God. The lame man was apparently cared for by fellow Jews who faithfully carried him to the gate every day to ask for alms. The temple was a place where people were especially inclined to give to the needy, fulfilling God’s commands (Deut 15:11; Tob 4:7).

But the stunning cure of the man lame from birth is something new, above and beyond these acts of piety. It is a divine act inexplicable in human terms. It is heaven invading earth — the messianic kingdom made present and visible. Jesus had said to the crowds during his public ministry, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power” (Mark 9:1). Before the eyes of the crowd at the Beautiful Gate, his words are being fulfilled.

Proclaiming Jesus the Healer

Peter now has to explain to the quickly burgeoning crowd what just happened and what it means. He takes the opportunity to proclaim the kerygma, the good news of salvation in Christ, and invite people to repentance and faith. He says, in effect, “You’ve just seen a miracle. Now let me explain who did it and what that has to do with you.” Peter’s response sets an example for the rest of Church history. The right follow-up to a miracle done in the name of Jesus is always to seize the opportunity to proclaim Jesus.

Peter’s explanation of how the miracle occurred is worded somewhat awkwardly: “His name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong whom you see and know; and the faith which is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all” (3:16). Peter seems to be repeating himself. But he is concerned to underscore two essential ingredients of this healing.

Jesus’ name, which in biblical thought means his presence and authority, healed the man. Jesus alone has power to heal.

But it was faith in his name that released Jesus’ healing power upon this man in this place and time. Although the Lord can heal a person without human intervention any time he wants to, he most often chooses to involve his disciples in his miraculous works. The means by which he involves them is faith.

The stupendous healing at the Beautiful Gate, followed by Peter’s speech explaining what had happened, has an immediate result: “Many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to about five thousand” (Acts 4:4). The glorious power of Jesus’ name has been publicly manifested, and the Church has grown exponentially.

This healing is only the first of many recounted in Acts. The miracle causes Peter’s own faith to grow to such an intensity that he becomes a kind of lightning rod for the Lord’s miraculous power. “They even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and pallets, 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” (5:15–16).

Peter’s ministry is beginning to look more and more like that of Jesus. At Lydda, Peter finds a man who has been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years. He simply speaks a word of command: “‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.’ And immediately he rose.” The result is mass conversions to Christ among the residents of Lydda and Sharon (9:34–35).

At Joppa, Peter prays at the bedside of a dead woman and raises her to life in the same way, with a simple command. His words are curiously similar to those of Jesus in the Gospel: “Tabitha, rise” (Acts 9:40; see Mark 5:41). This miracle too has an immediate impact on evangelization: “it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord” (9:42).

Multiplying Miracles

The gift of healing, given first to Peter and the Twelve, soon began to be diffused among other members of the Church. Stephen, one of the seven deacons appointed by the apostles to administer the care of the needy,³⁷ “did great wonders and signs among the people” (6:8) before he was martyred. Another deacon, Philip, evangelized in Samaria — a region previously hostile to the gospel (Luke 9:52–53) — and won multitudes to Christ by the healings he worked. “For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice; and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed” (8:7).

Soon afterward, the Church’s fiercest persecutor, Paul, was transformed by his encounter with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus. Following this encounter Paul was blind for three days, a penitential sign of the spiritual blindness in which he had been living (9:1–3). He was healed by the laying of hands of a believer named Ananias. Not accidentally, Paul’s first miracle was to cause temporary blindness to fall on a man who was vehemently opposing the gospel as he once had. This led to the conversion of the proconsul who witnessed it (13:6–12). As Paul and Barnabas preached in Iconium, the Lord “bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands” (14:3). In the course of his missionary journeys Paul cured a lame man (14:8–10), cast out a clairvoyant spirit from a slave girl who was being exploited (16:16–18), restored a young man to life (20:7–12), and healed a man of fever and dysentery (28:8–9). Paul’s most fruitful ministry was in Ephesus, where “God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them” (19:11–12).

Jesus had promised his disciples at the Last Supper, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father” (John 14:12). In the miracles worked by Peter and Paul there is already an initial fulfillment of this promise. The Gospels nowhere record Jesus healing people simply by his shadow falling on them or by having his handkerchiefs brought to the sick, nor bringing about mass conversions.³⁸ Yet Peter and Paul do. As Luke emphasizes, it is not the apostles themselves but the risen Lord Jesus who is acting through them, continuing in them all that he “began to do and teach” during his earthly life (Acts 1:1; cf. 14:3).

There is an important detail that often goes unnoticed in the reports of the disciples’ healings in Acts: Luke never says they prayed for healing, with the exception of Peter praying for Tabitha to be raised from the dead and Paul praying for the sick father of Publius (9:40; 28:8). In every other instance, they healed by announcement or by command, sometimes with the laying on of hands (9:17; 28:8):

“In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (3:6).

“Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed” (9:34).

“Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus … has sent me that you may regain your sight” (9:17).

“Stand upright on your feet!” (14:10).

“I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her” (16:18).

“Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him” (20:10).

In all these cases, they healed not by asking the Lord to heal, but by boldly exercising the authority the Lord had already delegated to them.

This pattern invites us to consider whether Christians today fully understand the authority we have in Christ, a share in his own divine authority over sickness and all the forces of evil that oppress human beings. Jesus did not say “Pray for the sick” (although James 5:16 does instruct us to do so); he said, “Heal the sick.” This command was initially given to the Twelve, to whom Christ entrusted his authority over the Church in a unique and preeminent way. But there are no grounds for confining the command to heal to the Twelve (and their successors, the bishops), any more than we can limit the command to evangelize to bishops only.

Signs and Wonders and the Spread of the Word

It is easy to forget what an outlandish message the apostles had to preach. Jesus, a poor Jewish carpenter from the backwater village of Nazareth, just recently executed as a criminal by means of the Empire’s most extreme and degrading form of capital punishment, is risen from the dead and is the long-awaited Messiah and Lord of the whole universe! The gospel sounded no less absurd in the first century than it does today. What is amazing is not that some did not believe, but that anyone believed at all. They did so because of the gospel’s own self-authenticating power — its power to make present the reality it announces — and also through the miraculous healings by which God himself bore witness to the spoken message and disposed the hearts of the listeners to believe it.³⁹

Luke underscores again and again the relationship between miracles and the growth of the Church. In Jerusalem “many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles…. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women” (5:12–14; cf. 2:43–47). When Philip evangelized in Samaria, the people gave heed to his preaching “when they heard him and saw the signs he did” (8:6). The extraordinary miracles worked by Paul in Ephesus became known throughout the region, and “fear fell upon them all; the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled … and the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily” (19: 17, 20).

The growth of the Church hardly went smoothly, however. It encountered many forms of opposition, human and spiritual. The early Christians experienced their first taste of persecution when Peter and John were arrested, then forbidden by the Sanhedrin to teach in the name of Jesus (4:18). It was a demand to privatize faith, to stop speaking publicly about the gospel and its implications, not unlike what Christians experience in many parts of the world today.

The believers’ response is instructive. They gathered to pray, realizing that intercessory prayer is essential for the success of the Church’s mission. Surprisingly, they did not pray for the Lord to overthrow their persecutors, or even for themselves to be kept safe. Rather, they prayed for even more confidence to preach the gospel accompanied by supernatural signs. “Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (4:29–30).

Times of greater trouble require a greater release of the Holy Spirit: greater zeal for the gospel, greater faith to move mountains, more healings, more joy, more courage in the face of persecution. If the Church, feeling external pressures against its evangelistic mission, boldly prayed for signs and wonders then, how can we not do so today?

When they finished praying, “the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness” (4:31). It is a kind of replay of Pentecost, a fresh outpouring of power from on high to meet the new challenges of the day. The Lord has more than answered their prayer.

Not Eloquence but Power

The letters of Paul, written earlier than Acts, give further insight into the role of healings and miracles in the early Church. For Paul, manifestations of the Spirit’s power were an essential part of the preaching of the gospel. Although he was capable of eloquent arguments, he deliberately refrained from them so as to preach the unvarnished kerygma, the message of Christ crucified and risen.⁴⁰ In fact, Paul believed there was a grave danger in people coming to Christ on the fragile basis of human persuasiveness rather than the firm basis of God’s power. Reason can provide a support for faith, but it cannot produce faith itself. So Paul insists, “My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of Spirit and power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor 2:4–5). By “demonstration of Spirit and power” he probably meant both the convincing power of the Holy Spirit at work in the hearts of the hearers, convincing them that the gospel is true, and the miracles that accompany the gospel, proving that Jesus is indeed alive and at work in the world.