Desperate for Jesus and a New Normal

“They were all healed.”

(Acts 5:12-16, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, June 5, 2011)

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.

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.

It is not every person's ambition to live large. Many people simply want to live a normal life. But in all the diversity that we have in our world today, what is a normal life? Every definition that we might come up with seems so bound up in the expectations of a given place or time. More than any cultural blinders, we have expectations that come from being used to life after the fall.

Sin is normal. Medication is normal, because illness is normal. Even death seems normal to some through long exposure to a world of loss. Unemployment, dissatisfaction, hopelessness can be the way that life just seems to be under the sun. The Christian believes that a Savior has come to us from heaven, a place that is not very normal, at least to us. Our Messiah has won for us a new cosmos where righteousness dwells. How would Jesus have defined normal?

He came to bring good news to the impoverished and to give new strength to those who had given up on life. He brings freedom to people who may have thought that there was no way out of prison. He has gladness for you that is not a fake substitute. He will make the weak solid and overturn generations of pain. He has animals and land for his people, food for the hungry, and justice for the oppressed. He will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations. This is His definition of normal, and everything that is less than that is less than the normal of heavenly life.

When He had accomplished our salvation through His life and death, He set about the work of bringing the news of life and the experience of life to people throughout the earth. Maybe the experience of life in the church in Jerusalem in those opening years should be viewed by us as a true taste of what normal really should be in the Kingdom of God. In that normal kingdom life, “many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people.”

These works of heavenly healing were not taking place spontaneously, they were sent by God through the hands of people. Specifically, these signs and wonders were taking place “by the hands of the apostles.” This was important, since it was the Lord's will to connect the teaching of the kingdom with these signs of new life. We are told that the people of the Jerusalem church “were all together in Solomon's Portico.” They gathered there to hear the teaching of the apostles. Lives were being changed.

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,

There were three reactions to all of these great events that are listed for us in verses 13 and 14,

First, people did not dare to join the Christians. We know that the report spread quickly about God's immediate judgment on the lie of Ananias and Saphira. That combined with the miracles that the apostles were performing caused many to have a new sense of the fear of the Lord.

Second, “the people held them in high esteem.” The fear of God and the esteem of His people can go together. Everything about the church was admirable. It was not a place of hypocrisy, but of obvious love and power.

Finally, “more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.” This great growth in the church took place despite the fact that many people were afraid to be associated with them. Many could not resist the pull of this new normal that they were seeing from afar. They were seeing the life of Jesus on earth in a community that was different. Many people wanted to be a part of it.

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.

Verses 15 and 16 suggest that the group that was especially attracted to the Lord's people was largely comprised of those who knew that they needed the help of heaven. Sick people were coming in droves, and were being carried to the church by those who cared for them. They might have wanted to stay away, not because they did not admire the church, but because they were afraid of the God that they knew they needed.

If your child was sick or demon-possessed and you had no other place to go, what would you do if you heard that one of the neighbors was healed by Peter. What would you do if you heard a report like the one at the end of verse 16, that “they were all healed?” Wouldn't you feel a strong desire to go where the apostles might be?

As the word was spread of the amazing signs of the Lord's power, wouldn't you be interested to at least find out what they were talking about in Solomon's Portico? Perhaps you would have some lingering ambivalence, afraid of being associated with this group that was despised by some powerful people, and where God was so near that a couple was struck down simply for their lie about how much they gave. If you were not sure about it all, perhaps you would at least line the road where Peter might come by, so that his shadow might fall on your child.

But if you listened to what the apostles said, there would be one Name that would stand out. That Name was attracting the desperate from all over the various towns outside of Jerusalem. That one Name that still has the power of heaven is Jesus. He is still setting people free from sin and death. He is displaying a new kind of normal that comes from His wounded hands and feet.

Why is the church so lacking in power now? Why is it that we simply cannot say the words today, that “they were all healed” when referring to those who come to our worship services or classes? We should not be too quick to offer our opinions on this question. God knows the times and the seasons. He knows the beginning from the end.

But maybe we have gotten too used to the normal of this world of loss and disappointment. Maybe we need to be desperate. One thing is for certain. Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. The church should be the place where desperate people find new life.

1. What was the normal life of the church described here?

2. Why were they all together in Solomon's Portico?

3. What were the three reactions of those outside to the church?

4. What was the church especially known for among those who were facing sickness?

OT Passage: Isaiah 61