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Healing in the Acts
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work? No, not according to this. Everything recorded in Luke was what He began. Why does he
start out Acts with this verse? Because what you’re about to read is a continuation of what Jesus
started.
In Acts 10:38, it says, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with
power.” Did you read about that in the Book of Luke, about how He was anointed? He was
baptized in the river, and when He came out by the river, the Spirit of God came on Him in
bodily shape and form as a dove. “With the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing
good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” He was
doing
,
doing good and healing all.
What you read about in Luke is an account of what Jesus
began
to do. What did He do? He was
doing good and healing all. He began to do and to teach. What we’re about to read in the Book of
Acts is a continuation of the ministry of Jesus, of all that He started.
Do you believe the tomb is empty? Jesus is not in a tomb, anywhere (Mark 16:6). You can’t find
His body anywhere because His body has been resurrected. He’s alive, and because He’s alive,
He is still doing what He did. What He started is still going on.
You have to remember that the people in the Book of Acts here are just like us. They’re on this
side of the Cross. They’re not seeing Jesus in the flesh; they’re walking by faith. They’re living
just like us. We’re in this book, just in later chapters. Jesus ascended on high. He said, “You
tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power” (Luke 24:49).
In chapter two, they’re in the upper room waiting on the Lord. They hear a sound from heaven
like a rushing mighty wind. The Holy Spirit came in there and sat on all of them. When the Holy
Spirit sits on you, you know it. They were all filled with the Spirit, spoke in tongues, and came
out of there full of fire and walking by faith. You don’t get very far, just chapter three, until you
start seeing something that sounds very familiar and looks very familiar.
Acts 3:1 begins, “Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer,
being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they
laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into
the temple; Who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter,
fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting
to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have
give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up,” get up, “and walk. And he took him
by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received
strength.” That’s a miracle. This man has been like this since he was born, all of his life. That’s a
miracle. But Jesus was not there in the flesh. We’re not reading in the Book of Luke. Jesus on
this day was where He is today, at the right hand of the Father. And they were walking by faith
on that day, like you and I walk by faith today.
Some people try to say, “Well, Jesus healed people to prove His deity. And He healed people to
prove that He is the Son of God. When He died all that ceased and changed.”