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Healing in the Acts
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This is not Peter. This is not John. This is not one of the twelve. This was a deacon. This was a
guy who waited tables in the church. He wasn’t one of the twelve, or someone who traveled with
Jesus. He was a table waiter, a dish washer, a bread toaster, a fish cleaner. He was a deacon
chosen to help wait tables, to make sure everyone was fed and had their regular portions, and
here demons are crying out. That sounds like what you read about in Mark, when Jesus got filled
with the Spirit and went into the synagogue, doesn’t it? (Mark 1:21-26). Paralyzed people and
lame people are being healed and raised up. That sounds just like something Jesus would do—
because it is, through a man who is not one of the twelve.
Acts 14:3 says, “Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave
testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.”
There are two things I want you to notice here. What are they speaking and preaching? They’re
preaching the Word, the Gospel. You’re going to see that later, in just a few verses. This is the
very same Gospel we preach today. And the Lord is still giving testimony to the Word of His
grace that we are preaching—with signs and wonders.
Reason number twenty we’re sure it’s God’s will for all to be healed is because of healing in the
Acts. We could call it “the continuing ministry of Jesus.” You could call it several other things,
but you know what I’m talking about. With this reason comes the next one. We’re sure it’s
God’s will for all to be healed today because of gifts of healings. Both of those words are in the
plural in the original—gifts of healings—and we will look at this in the next chapter.