Acts 3:1–10

3 Now Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man that was lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; 3 who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked to receive an alms. 4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him, with John, said, Look on us. 5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, that give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. 7 And he took him by the right hand, and raised him up: and immediately his feet and his ankle-bones received strength. 8 And leaping up, he stood, and began to walk; and he entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God: 10and they took knowledge of him, that it was he that sat for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

Jesus gave his disciples everything they needed to finish His unfinished work that which He both began to do and teach.

And from that very first day that the church was born, the Spirit of God gave gifts to the members of the church by which they could build the body up.

The Lord knew that there had to be some kind of confirmation of His witness. And so during His own lifetime, He not only said things, but He did things. And He said it is not only a matter of the words that I say, but you should believe me for the very works sake. Nicodemus said, “we know that thou art a teacher come from God not because of what you say only, but because nobody can do the things that you do except God be with him.”

So Christ, Himself, proved His ministry by certain miracles.

Chapter 3 is a living illustration of the fact of Chapter 2:43. It’s just one particular illustration the Holy Spirit chose to show us how this miracle gift of healing accommodated the gospel message.

There’s much confusion today about healing, and what is the biblical teaching of healing.

The typical healing movement is based upon a misinterpretation of Isaiah 53, the statement “By his stripes, we are healed.” And healers have historically used that to mean that in the atonement there is physical healing for everybody. That is a gross misinterpretation of Isaiah 53. Christ didn’t die for the ills of the body, He died for the sin of the soul..

If there was healing in the atonement somebody sure should have informed the apostle Paul about it as he never got rid of his problem.

1 Corinthians 12, the gift of healing was one of the gifts of an apostle. That can be verified throughout the book of Acts.

We also can conclude, some do, some don’t, that the apostles have passed from the scene. An apostle, in fact, was one who had seen Jesus Christ, with the exception of Paul who was an apostle in a special sense.

Satan and his demons can heal, and they can do it even in the name of the Jesus Christ. So just because some would be healer uses the name of Christ or the name of God in his incantations or in his technique is no guarantee that it is, in fact, God who is involved.

Jesus Himself, predicted that false Christs and false prophets and false apostles would arise and, according to Mark 13, would perform many demonic signs and wonders. In Matthew 7 it indicates that, Lord, Lord have we not done many wonderful works in your name, cast out demons in your name. He said, “depart from me,” what, “I never knew you.” There are people operating on the behalf of Satan in the name of God and in the name of Jesus Christ and we must be aware of this.

Satan functions as an angel of light. He masquerades in the character of Christ and godliness. Paul spoken about seducing spirits. He spoke about the doctrines of demons. The power of healing is very often manifest in spiritism, spiritualism and demonic activities. In both white magic and in black magic. Black magic having to do with Satan himself, conjuring Satan up or demons directly. White magic having to do with incantations and magic that don’t name Satan, but really deal in his realm.

2 Thessalonians 2 says that in the latter times particularly in the tribulation there will a great increase in the working of Satan through these delusions. “even him,” that’s antichrist, “whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders.”

During the tribulation, of course, this reaches an apex, but the mystery of iniquity is already beginning to work now and demonic activity is reaching a high point. John wrote in his epistles, that the antichrist was already present in the time that he was writing.

“If the practice of any healing process opposes God’s will as expressed in Scripture, there is the danger of demonic intrusion.

Just because somebody invokes Christ name in a healing, means nothing. If demons can accomplish their purpose in the name of Christ, they will do it. Healers often forcing people to be healed in the sense that they may grab them and say I command you to be healed. That is not biblical.

Raphael Gasson who was a formally spiritistic medium healer was converted to Jesus Christ, and he wrote The Challenging Counterfeit. He said, “There are many spiritualists today who are endowed with this remarkable gift of healing by the power of Satan. And I myself having been
used in this way can testify to having witnessed miraculous healing taking place at healing meetings.”

Acts 16:16. “It came to pass as we went to prayer, this is Paul, Silas, a certain maid possessed with a spirit of divination. Now here is a demon-possessed individual, who is used as a medium. “Who brought her master’s much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us and cried saying these men are the servants of the Most High God who show unto us the way of salvation.” That sounds good, she is given them good press, she says these guys, we’re the Most High God servants. They have the message of salvation. All the right words right out of the pit.

Verse 18, “And this did she many days but Paul being grieved turned and said to the spirit I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.” That was Satan. That was demonic. The declaration was accurate to the very letter. The source was hell.

What does the Word of God say about healing?

I believe, not all agree, the charismatic gift of healing, the gift of healing in the apostolic error was limited to the apostles and prophets. It was limited to that time, and it was limited to God’s sovereignty. Not everybody was every healed. It was limited in every sense. So, I think that it would still be limited if it were around but I don’t believe it’s around because I believe when the apostles ceased so did the gifts of an apostle.

There is no indication in all of the New Testament church, that the apostolic gift of healing was ever exercised in the behalf of the believers. When exercised, it was a sign to Unbelievers.

You never see the apostle Paul going back to the established churches and healing the sick people there. It is always a sign to the unbeliever, Acts 19:11, “God wrought special miracles by the hand of Paul so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs and aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them.”

The ones who were healed were having evil spirits released. These are not believers. This is the beginning of the ministry in Ephesus and to confirm the word, these miracles happened. Verse 18, “And many that believed came, confessed their sins.”

When Paul got ready to leave Ephesus, he said, Okay you elders, feed the flock and take care of the flock. He never said and keep on healing the flock. At no point do you find in the established church the ministry of healing going on. That is always at the beginning at the outset to confirm the initial preaching of the gospel. They didn’t need confirming signs after they were saved.

We are not to assume that the biblical gift of healing was to be activated in the behalf of the church. People today who claim to have the gift of healing claim that all Christians have the privilege of receiving the benefit of that gift.

I feel it would be plausible to say, only does the gift no longer exist today, but if it did exist, it would be a sign gift to unbelievers not something to be exercised upon all Christians all the time. Which is primarily what the healing ministry does today.

Am I saying that God doesn’t heal? No, God does heal.

And so when we pray, we must pray not commanding be healed, but we must pray if God be so desiring be healed.

Do we ever stop and think, is it possible that God is thrilled and excited when certain Christians get sick?

What would be the reason for that? Because it is testing them and refining them and equipping them to be what they otherwise could never be. God didn’t choose to remove Paul’s infirmity did He? He chose to show His strength in Paul’s weakness.

We will get to the actual healing of Acts 3 next week.