All Christian groups that consider themselves orthodox agree on 2 things. It is absolutely necessary to them to acknowledge that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. His birth was miraculous. They also insist that Jesus was literally and bodily resurrected from the grave. These and other amazing signs are proof that Jesus is the Son of God, and not simply a wise teacher or a very good man.

The stories of the miracles that Jesus performed are well known even among unbelievers today. In Luke’s second volume of Gospel history many miracles are recorded as well. These are not nearly as well known. In a previous article I shared a quote from the British minister and bible translator, J. B. Phillips. He suggested that the modern church world has reason to become disturbed or uncomfortable by what we see in the New Testament book of Acts.

Could it be possible that we hear less preaching and teaching from the book of Acts because of the challenges the Early Church presents to us? It is so wonderful to think of our lovely Savior and His power to forgive, heal, control nature, atone for our sins and rise from the grave. We quickly cry “heresy” when anyone denies that His miracles were real. He was the Son of God! However, in Acts we see the same power to heal and work miracles in ordinary humans like us!

Not only do we see them healing the sick but we also see other strange behaviors. Today if someone claims that God talked to them we might roll our eyes or even begin to avoid them. In Acts, as in many other biblical passages, it appears very normal for God to give counsel and direction to individuals in various unusual ways. Again, conservative Christians can be very dogmatic in proclaiming that we have a book that came into being by the very fact that God spoke to and through men. Interestingly, some of those same people claim that God would never, ever do that again!

As I look around I have to admit that miracles like those we see in the bible are not as common place today. Then I have to ask myself, “why is that so?” Some offer various explanations to to answer that question, but Jesus gave one explanation to His disciples that might just apply to us today. They asked Him why they could not deliver a certain child from demon possession. His answer was this: It was because of their unbelief. (Matthew 17:19-20).

Instead of making excuses for our shortcomings today, maybe we would do better to share the confession of the father of the boy in that same story, he cried out
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) I don’t know about you, but I believe that is a prayer that God will answer!

If you are interested in considering things that the First Century Church could teach us, I hope you will join me in this study by subscribing to my blog at https://livingtruth.com or my facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/livingtruthcom