Miracles, Signs and Wonders

God is so good. And uh it's good to be in the house of the Lord in the presence of the people of God. We strengthen each other. We really do whether we uh acknowledge that as we should or not. But we strengthen one another.

It's your praise will carry me. My praise I hope will will strengthen you as we lift up the name of the Lord together. That's what that's what we assemble ourselves together for. Bringing the body together to be strengthened together. Amen.

connecting with God and others. It may have been a while since some of us have done either, but we need to do that. We need to connect with God and we need to connect with each other. Amen. I um was drafted somewhat to uh teach this lesson uh this this week and so I'm just going to depend upon the Lord.

It's about miracles, signs, and wonders. And uh you would think that this would be an easy topic to teach about and yet it is much more complicated and complex than uh than we might realize. from the book of Acts. And we're studying, as brother Spa pointed out last week, we're studying about the book of Acts and and select passages from the book of Acts. And so, we're going to look at miracles, signs, and wonders today, but not do an in-depth study or even a a cursory glance, I I suppose, at at uh all of the miracles, signs, and wonders that took place in the book of Acts.

We're going I'm going to take a a little different tack, a little different approach on my uh teaching. Surprise, right? Acts chapter 1 verses 6-8 says this. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father has put in his own power.

That word there is exusia. It means authority, legal right. He has the right to put that in his own power. And then he says, "But ye shall receive power." That word is dunamis. The ability or capability to do things after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.

And then there's this conjunction. It's not an adversative conjunction. It is a continuation. And ye shall be witnesses unto me. Everybody say unto me.

He didn't say for me. He said, "You're going to be witnesses to me, to me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts chapter 2 verse 32 says this. This Jesus and this was Peter preaching on that day of Pentecost. This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses. We all are witnesses.

Acts chap 2 42 and 43. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. God add his blessing to his word today.

But Acts, the book of Acts covers a a period of time of about three decades, about 30 years from the inception of the church to Paul's imprisonment in Rome. And uh it's nearly impossible to put a finger and I I like to do this. I like to figure things out. How many, how much, why, uh what, you know, I like to figure these things out. But it's nearly impossible to enumerate the entire amount of miracles, signs, and wonders that are contained in the book of Acts that occurred during this period of time in this primitive church.

Language such as many signs and wonders were done in Acts chapter 2 verse 43. In 5:16 it says they were all healed. And uh in in 1911, God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. So there were many miracles, signs and wonders that happened during this period of time when Luke of which Luke wrote. There are specifically though about 21 notable explicit miracles that are outlined in the book of acts.

They are given to us and we know these things. Academics and scholars and religious leaders still debate whether these things still happen. They call them cessationists. They believe that everything stopped when the apostles were gone and with that primitive church. Everything stopped.

They debate whether these things still happen. I was talking to brother Mike just before service and he reminded me of sister Elaine Castro. Four doctors have noted in their notes that a notable miracle has taken place in this woman's body. There should be no debate, but they debate whether it still happens today or if this power was regul uh reg relegated only to the apostles and the apostle Paul not being of the twelves but as one born out of due season. The argument that I would present to anybody who believes that it was just the apostles is that there was a deacon by the name of Stephen of whom it was said he was full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles among the people.

And there was a disciple by the name of Ananas who laid hands on the blinded Saul and he received his sight. So there was evidence that even among the Corinthian church that they were experiencing the miraculous power of God. So rail if you want on the fact of whether it still happens today. There are those of us who call ourselves apostolic believers who believe that that same Jesus still is alive and well in the church today. As apostolic believers of this, we are convinced as Luke recorded in this book called the Acts of the Apostles, God did not, has not, and will not leave himself without a witness in the world.

There is still a church that believes in the face of all the impossibilities and and all the odds that this same Jesus is still walking in the midst of the church today. God still has a witness in the world. Jesus said, "These signs shall follow." not the apostles shall follow them that believe in my name. They're going to do and see mighty works of God. And then he reiterated and and punctuated that statement in Acts chapter 1 and8 when he told them, "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.

you all to the crowd that he was speaking to on that day. You all shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost comes upon you. It started with a paradox. I love paradoxes. They seem to be contradictions, but they prove to be true.

a statement uh and and so he tells them that he's told them into time past he said low I am with you always and here they stand and he's taken up from them the same one who said I'm with you always and paradoxically Basically, he is removed from their sight as he's taken up in a cloud and he was gone. But he left them with a statement and said, "I have to go away because if I don't go away, the comforter won't come and I will come to you. The one that has been with you is going to be in you. And this is the paradox that began what we call the church age. He left, but he came back in a form of the spirit, the Holy Spirit of God.

He didn't answer their prior question about the restoration of Israel. Rather, he gave them a counterstatement. But you will receive power and you will be witnesses to me. Thus begins this book called the Acts of the Apostles. And the entirety of the remainder of the narrative is supportive evidence that the spirit of this same Jesus that you see taken away is going to come again in like manner.

That same Jesus lives and moves and breathes in them that believe. And there will be evidences. There will be signs that will follow that will witness and attest to the fact that Jesus has come to live in our lives. The miracles recorded in Acts and Beyond is a continuation. It's an extension of the ministry begun by Jesus Christ.

John wrote in first John chapter 3 and verse 8, the latter part, for this purpose, listen to me, for this purpose the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. We as the church are an extension of that ministry of Jesus Christ. We exist. That word there comes from a Greek word leo which means to loose. He came to loose from the works of the devil people who are bound.

Jesus in his mission statement said this in Luke 4 verse 18 and 19. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captive and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. I stand here in the midst of people today that can say this is our mission as well. The spirit of the Lord is upon us.

The spirit of the Lord is upon us. He has anointed us to preach the gospel. He has anointed us to heal the brokenhearted. He has anointed us uh to preach deliverance to the captives. He has anointed us to preach recovering of the sight to the blind to set at liberty.

Literally what we are doing folks is unloosing the works of the devil. We have come to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus, all the things that he did was to build faith in who he was. He did what he did to reveal who he was. Miracles that Jesus did and miracles that happen today are not a novelty act.

It's not a freak show. It's not something that you capitalize on. It is a revelation of who he is. When something takes place, when something miraculous happens, Jesus said, "It's not me. It's the Father that works in me.

I've come to reveal him to you through me. That is the mission of the church still today to bring Jesus Christ. A revelation of who the mighty God in Christ is to this world, this sick and dying world. To that end, he committed the extension of that ministry to them that believe. Are there any believers in the house today?

Is there anybody here that will attest to the fact I believe? I may not know a lot of things, but brother, my faith is strong in God. And I can tell you that I believe Jesus lives. John 14:12, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." You just raised your hand to attest to the fact that you are a believer. If you're a believer, Jesus said the works that he did, you'll do, we will do.

And when we do this, when we do this as Jesus deflected the the the glory to the spirit that was in him derived from the miracles, the glory that came from them and the power that worked the miracles, all of that he deflected and gave honor and glory to his father And so as he did, SO DO WE. ALL THE GLORY, all the honor, all the blessing, all the strength. Anything that we accomplish in the realm of the spirit is not for our glory. It is to the glory of God. And there is an expectation that we respond in kind by giving him glory.

So the book of acts is sometimes a narrative and you have to understand this that it is sometimes a narrative. It's telling a story. It is sometimes normative. It's establishing normaly in the church. You've got to understand the distinction between that in order to figure out how should we react.

Let me tell you something. The Bible in the book of acts says that they brought their handkerchiefs to the apostle and they took them from the body of the apostle. Sudarion sweat rags. Basically, they brought these to the apostle. It was not a template.

Now, I'm not going to decry this. We should if God inspires you. But this whole mess about send me $ five dollar and I'll send you an anointed handkerchief, it was not normative. People did that because they were inspired by the spirit of God and directed by the spirit of God to do so. So if God directs that, everything's cool.

Everything's fine. I think the principle is we have got to follow the leading and be sensitive to the spirit of God. And so if he tells you to do something that is out of character or out of the ordinary, just get up and do it. It may never have been done before. It may never become a part of our normal procedure, but I'm going to tell you something.

When the spirit of God moves and speaks, it is that time and that point that we should get up and begin to move where the spirit leads us. Don't go quiet on me at this point. Hallelujah. So sometimes it's just narrative. It's telling a story about what happened and sometimes is establishing a normal procedure, normative, a template.

There are some, as I mentioned before, 20 explicitly defined miracles done by the apostolic church. I don't have to I don't have to enumerate them because you've heard these stories. Many of us have heard these all of our lives. They become commonplace to us. We take them for granted.

There were the first one and I think as far as the church is concerned, there were the tongues at Pentecost. That was an amazing occurrence because they heard them. Those people that had gathered from other nations, they heard them speaking in their own language. I heard of this happening at Isuza Street, Brother Willilifford, that it happened there that people would hear, they would come in and they would hear people speaking in languages that they had not learned. There were two accounts of, and we like that this one, the lame and the paralytics being healed.

two specific accounts given and there were two accounts of miraculously the dead being raised back to life. Udicus to this day still maintains sister Amber that he was pushed that he didn't really fall asleep in church. God forbid. Udicus says I was pushed. But anyway, he died and and they went down and prayed for him and and he got raised back to life and and uh Dorcas and there were three accounts of miraculous deliverances from prison of all things.

There's Peter and John and Paul and Silas and and uh Peter by himself thrown into prison and three times. What is that all about? It's about fulfilling the words that Jesus said, "I've came to preach deliverance to the captives." And so, he shows his power, his ability to open up prison doors and and free people who are in prison. And there are accounts of blindness being healed, snake venom being neutralized, dysentery being healed, accounts of supernatural revelation, and there are many more that are stated collectively as many miracles or many were healed or they were all healed. But the first characteristic and the principle that I want to focus on today is that there was a reason for these things.

There was a definite cause that these things spring from because the first characteristic that defines normaly for the apostolic church you taught about it on Wednesday night and that is persistent prayer. If you don't pray, you're not going to see the power. Sorry, that's just the way it is. I think I remember sister mangad saying something like this in the book of acts the church was either going to a prayer meeting coming from a prayer meeting or engaged in a prayer meeting every time that you read about the church they were doing one of those things the bible says uh and Jesus instruction was to the apostles and those people that had followed him go and tar. That's an archaic term.

I am not a patient person. Terry is not my long suit. Amen. I'm being very transparent with you. When I say I want something done, I don't want it done next Tuesday.

I don't want it done next month. I want it done. Jesus said, "You got to learn patience because in your patience, you possess your souls. Your very lives are dependent upon your patience." And so I said, "I've lived 75 years, Lord, without it. Why do I need it now?

But he says to them, "Tarry in Jerusalem." Sometimes, Brother Tony, we just got to wait for God. One of the hardest things that we do. He said, "Go Terry in Jerusalem." Terry in its original form means sit down. Settle down. Just stay where you are for a minute.

And Jesus told them, "Tarry in Jerusalem because if you don't tar, there's not going to be any power that comes upon you." And the Bible says, "Then these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren." There must have been, this is just me speculating, Julian, good to see you back there, bud. Me speculating, Jesus had done so many miracles and there was many more people that saw him after the resurrection. Paul said that he was seen at once above 5,000 or 500 brethren at once. So there was probably a bigger crowd I think than 120 that started out bigger crowd. The story of the resurrected Christ would have spread and he was seen by a lot of people.

But this tarion gets us. Just sitting down and waiting or coming to a prayer meeting that we seem kind of extraneous doesn't really have a lot of meaning to us. Sometimes it gets to us especially after we've been praying tarion for five days. And I'm sure that some of the crowd said, "I got things to do, man. I got to slop the hogs." Wait a minute.

We're Jewish. We don't do that. Okay. I got things to do at home. I've got I've got work that needs to be done.

And so after about five days, a bunch of them just get up and leave because this tarion will wear on you. So after about eight days, another group gets up and says, "Man, we we've been here a long time and and and we've been waiting for this promise of the Father that's supposed to come upon us. Don't you think eight days is enough? And if Jesus was going to do it, if God was going to do it, surely he would have done it by this point. But the hallmark of the early church became this.

Persistence in prayer, sticking with it until you see things begin to move. So those who terried, those who caught the vision on that 10th day, on the 10th day, how did it happen? Why did it happen that way? The Bible says because on that day, the day of Pentecost was fully come. It was the fullness of time had arrived.

And on that day, those who had terried and had seen the vision, they received the power of God that was promised. I made a little statement. You can have what you don't see when you can see what you don't have. You can have what you don't see when you can see what you don't have. Faith calls those things which are not as though they are.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for and is the evidence of things not seen. Let me tell you something. You can have what you don't see when you can finally see what you don't have. When you pray, it brings things into your vision and into your sight. And you, it raises your faith to the point where you begin to see what you don't have.

And when you can see what you don't have, it puts it into the realm of possibility and brings it into being. When they prayed, the promise came. When they prayed, they prayed for direction for the selection of an apostle to replace Judas. Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer and the place, the Bible says in Acts 4, the place was shaken where they were assembled together. Why?

Because of prayer. Realizing the effectiveness of this prayer equals power. It is not a complex equation. Prayer equals power. Much prayer, much power.

Little prayer, little power. No prayer, no power. But when the church prays, the Bible says the place where they were assembled together was shaken. Oh, that right there. Sometimes we got questions.

Michael sat in her second floor room and watched David dance. And she got David aside and said, she asked him a question. How foolish did you appear today? Wrong question. She was a child of a king.

She had every advantage. We just watched brother John run. The real question is, why am I not down there with David? Why am I the child of a king criticizing or wondering why did John run? Why am I not running with John?

Don't look at that person and say why are they raising my hand? THE QUESTION IS WHY AM I NOT raising my hand? When we pray, THE POWER OF GOD IS released into our lives. This is why the apostles, they stated this when they were being assailed early in the the the form for formative years of the church. The Bible says that there were grumblings and murmurings because the Grecians said, "Our widows aren't being taken care of like everybody else's." And they appointed deacons.

you take care of the business. They said, "What we're going to do is give ourselves continually to prayer and study of the word of God." Because they realize early on that prayer is power. And if you don't pray, you're not going to have the power of God. We used to sing a song. Here's an old guy going to reminisce for a minute.

It said shut in with God. Shut in with God in a secret place. There in the spirit. There in the spirit beholding his face. Gaining what?

New power. gaining new power to run in this race. I love to be shut in with God. Oh, folks, we can have a move of God in in Sunday school class. If you don't want a move of God, I can have a move of God all by myself.

But I'm telling you that shut in with God. There is something about this this being with God. You know how you magnetize? There are several ways that you can magnetize a plain ordinary piece of metal. You can you can magnetize a screwdriver by rubbing it on a magnet.

Right? I say brother Fred nodding his head. You've probably done this. You can magnetize a piece of metal by rubbing it on the magnet. That's proximity.

That's getting close enough and and you absorb some of that magnetic quality of the magnet. Jesus said to the disciples one day, 70 of them, "I'm sending you out. You've been close enough to me long enough that you can go out now and you can heal the sick and you can cast out devils and you can do miracles. They came back. It wasn't a permanent state.

It wasn't a permanent power because the magnetism will fade after a while if it's just come from proximity. But there's another way that you can magnetize something. You can charge the metal by winding it with wire and then attaching the power so that it is that piece of metal is now enveloped in something that is powered from an external source and it will become permanently magnetized, permanently endowed with power. This is what the Holy Ghost did for us. It's not just I come in, I feel the presence of God, I walk out.

No, the one who walked this earth said I have been with you, but I'm going to give you this power inside of you. He does not just It's not just about being close to him. Paul said, "For me to live is Christ." Uh, and I want to have that same kind of testimony for me to live is Christ. I want to be so plugged in and so in tune with the power of God that they would say of me as they said of the apostles, they have been with Jesus. Hallelujah.

The first miracle to the church with signs was accompanied by wonder in them that watched it. It's familiar to us all. There was a sound from heaven. There was a fire that appeared upon them all. They were unlearned people speaking in other languages, signs and wonders.

And the Bible says that the crowd, they were all amazed and they marveled at what had just taken place. May we never lose the marvel of repentant sinners being transformed by the power and the presence of God. I don't want to lose my fascination with what goes on in the realm of the spirit when one sinner repents and comes to God. I'm going to join in the rejoicing of the heavens in the presence of angels when one person goes down in a watery grave. We still do that here and I thank God for it that we clap and applaud when one sinner comes to repentance and is baptized in Jesus' name.

We still rejoice over somebody who receives the baptism of the Holy Ghost. But the real miracle had its roots in a spiritual realm. What was visible stood as a witness to Jesus the comforter. Jesus who was dead is now alive. Hallelujah.

You read the account and what was being spoken in other tongues was a testimony. Acts chapter 2 verse 11 says this. We do hear them speak in our tongues. They're not just talking our language. They're glorifying the wonderful works of God.

The tongues was doing something externally to the crowd that was there that got their attention. They were glorifying, magnifying the wonderful works of God. This was the beginning of a pattern of prayer and power that would rattle the entirety of the Roman world. It was a witness that will resound from Palestine to the seat of the Palatine of Roman government. It was a witness that could not be suppressed or subjugated.

It was a witness that would not succumb to persecution. It was a witness that would appear before kings and emperors declaring undeniable Caesar is not Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord and everything that follows is a testimony of the living Lord. The first miracle by the church in this the story is given in Acts chapter 3. I'm going to quit here in a minute.

A lame beggar. The impulse of the spirit. Most would think twice about yanking a lame man to his feet. We think twice about going get somebody by the hands, yanking them to their feet, saying, "Come on, walk." There was an impulse of the spirit. We we we suppress that by our reservations.

Let's stand together. I I got to quit. We we suppress this by our reservations, by our logic and sometimes pride. What if it don't happen? I'm going to look foolish.

What if I do what this impulse is telling me to do and it doesn't happen? Man, I'm gonna embarrass myself. I'm telling you, we're going to have to get out of that. How about what if it does happen and God wants to work a miracle through me? That feeling, that impulse that you've got to go pray for somebody.

that feeling, that impulse that you've got to go speak a word of faith into somebody's life. Uh, don't suppress that and don't deny that. Let God have his free course. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, when they saw that boldness, they perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men and they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. It's what it's all about, folks.

Not about you, me, being seen, being heard. It's about him. Let me introduce you to him today. If you don't know him in the power of his spirit, you're missing out on the greatest the greatest friendship that that life has to offer and that is friendship with Jesus. Fellowship divine.

Oh, what blessed sweet communion. Jesus is a friend of mine. Let's thank him together. Father, I thank you for your presence. I thank you for your spirit.

I thank you for your word. I thank you for prayer, the vehicle of prayer that we have. Thank you, Jesus, for meeting us in this place today. I'm looking forward to great things in this service that is upcoming. Lord, you're going to move.

You're going to bless. You're going to touch lives. Let it be done in Jesus name. Amen. And amen.

God bless you. Fellowship connect.