Acts 5:12-16--Many Signs and Wonders Done

Acts 5:12-16
English Standard Version
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Many Signs and Wonders Done
12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

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After the conflict with the Pharisees and God's judgment on Ananias and Sapphira, the people both inside the Church and outside the Church were struck with a holy fear of the LORD.  Now that they were paying attention to Him to hear what He had to say and watching to see what He was going to do next, and now that the issue of sin has been dealt with, God is going to once again move in power, specifically through the hands of the apostles.

We see the apostles gathered together once again on Solomon's Portico (Solomon's Porch), which is part of the Temple.  Luke notes that only the apostles dared to enter the Temple in defiance of the Sanhedrin, but even though the other Christians weren't as bold as the apostles, they were still held in high esteem by all the people.

Luke stops trying to count the number of people that are being added to the Church on a daily basis and simply says that it is now "multitudes of both men and women" that are every day repenting and believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, making public professions of faith and being baptized, for that is the pattern that we have seen from the beginning..  Luke also notes for us that, like during the ministry of Jesus, those with all kinds of infirmities are being brought out to the streets just so that Peter's shadow might pass over them and they might be healed.  This does not say anything special about Peter in particular, but He was full of the Spirit and the people had faith that all they needed to do was get close enough for Peter's shadow to fall on them to be healed.  We know though that the miracle was always in proportion to the faith.  Some during the time of Jesus thought all it would take would be for him to touch them, others that they would get close to Him and He would speak to them, still others wanted to reach out and touch the hem of His garment, but there was one in particular, a Roman centurion, who simply asked for Jesus to say the word because He understood that all of heaven and earth was under His authority and that when He spoke everything under His authority had to listen.  (See Luke 7:1-10).  The people are coming to let Peter's shadow fall on them not because it has mystical powers, but because their faith was only strong enough to believe that they had to get close to Peter for God to heal them.  God could have healed them from a great distance if they had the faith and would have recognized the miracle was from God and given Him the glory for it, and we know that miracles do happen over large distances to this very day, again in proportion to the faith of the one who needs to respond to the miracle in worship.

So then, the people started to gather in all the towns around Jerusalem to bring the sick to them for they were not allowed to bring the ailing and infirmed into the Temple.  The apostles would have to start going out, according to the Great Commission, to all the people that couldn't come to them.  There were many who were barred from entering the Temple or could only get but so far and were kept far off, yet we will see the gospel cross those social boundaries and those cultural boundaries as Jesus wants to save a remnant of every tribe, tongue, and people group.  We have already seen seen the gospel reach out to both Jewish men and Jewish women.  If we've paid attention during the ministry of Jesus, we saw Jesus take the gospel to the Samaritans, the Gentiles in the Decapolis, to those who were demonized, the blind, the lame, the lepers, those with bodily discharges that made them unclean, and even to those who were dead that He made alive.  The apostles will follow a similar pattern but we'll see their geographical scope increase as they go places that Jesus never went to during His thirty years here on Earth.  As He promised, if He left they would do even greater things through the power of the Holy Spirit than if He remained.  This has been God's plan all along, and these signs and wonders are working for their intended purpose, that the gospel might be validated and that sinners might repent and believe.